The Big Picture: 'Enthralling' The Times

Douglas Kennedy

Nov 2011 · Hachette UK

About this ebook

'Palm-tingling sensation ... captivating ... a completely convincing imaginative performance ... enthralling' The Times

'The Horse Whisperer recast by Patricia Highsmith ... a compulsive page-turner and a dark moral
fable' Mail on Sunday

'Kennedy's skill is to send you racing down the slope of sheer story' Esquire

On the face of it, Ben Bradford is your standard Wall Street hot shot - Junior partner in a legal firm, 6 figure income, wife and two young kids straight out of a Gap catalogue. But along with the WASP lifestyle comes the sting - Ben hates it. He wants - has always wanted - to be a photographer.

When he discovers his wife has fallen in love with another man, the consequences of a moment of madness force him to question not just the design of his life but the price of fulfilment. Because finding yourself means nothing when you're pretending to be someone else.

From the picket fences of yuppie New England to Montana's untouchable splendour, The Big Picture spans states and states of mind in a thrilling novel of genuine originality.

Ratings and reviews

I had previously read The Moment, The Pursuit of Happiness, Heat of Betrayal and A Special Relationship. I had Douglas Kennedy in my top 20 authors. Sad to say, The Big Picture is making me question my assessment. It's more of a novella than a novel. It's a long short story. I thought I was buying a meaty meandering story touching things human, emotional and psychological. This reads more like a how to get away with murder and is pretty surface stuff, no depth and an unlikable male (for a change) protagonist. It's streets behind Leaving The World and The Moment. In every other book of Kennedy's I have loved he has written from the female point of view. He is much better at that. His imagination has freer rein.

I read this years ago but can't forget it, a real page turner

Wonderful read & scary

About the author

Douglas Kennedy's previous twelve novels include the critically acclaimed bestsellersThe Big Picture, The Pursuit of Happiness, A Special Relationship and The Moment. He is also the author of three highly-praised travel books. The Big Picture was filmed with Romain Duris and Catherine Deneuve; The Woman in the Fifth with Ethan Hawke and Kristin Scott Thomas.

His work has been translated into twenty-two languages. In 2007 he was awarded the French decoration of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2009 the inaugural Grand Prix de Figaro. Born in Manhattan in 1955, he has two children and currently divides his time between London, Paris, Berlin, Maine and New York.