It’s the week of Dr. Agnes Stacey’s only daughter’s wedding, and each of the eleven attendees of the small family gathering is bringing their own simmering tensions to the event.  Agnes’ uncle, Professor Malcolm Miller, has harbored a family secret since her parents – his sister and brother in law – died in a car crash when she was a young girl. Dr. Joseph Bradshaw, who distantly married into the family, has nursed a secret obsession with Agnes since his brief stint as her therapist. Agnes herself will be returning to her ex-husband’s home for the first time, just as she’s trying to extricate herself from a potent love affair.  Each of them has the tools to analyze the love lives of others, yet find themselves unable to recognize the love in their own lives. And though they’ve each muddled through painful years in emotional isolation, only Malcolm knows that the origins of their thwarted attachments all lie in the same English seaside town. Where better to lay bare the failures and secrets of one’s advancing age than at an intimate celebration of love?

In this incisive and involving debut novel, Campbell parses the fraught inner lives of ordinary people doing their best to process the aftershocks of war, the parenting they do and don’t receive, and the many different forms love can take in one family.

Praise for Interpretations of Love:

“Astute, thought-provoking, and brilliantly constructed, this is an instant classic.”—Oprah Daily, Best Books of Fall

“Love and loyalty and betrayal and the ways people justify their behavior to themselves are prominent. Interpretations of love abound . . . This suspenseful, morally complex plot reminded me a bit of Ian McEwan’s ‘Atonement.’ Let’s hope Campbell’s agent is cooking up more ways to get this unusual and interesting writer back to her desk.”—Marion Winik, Washington Post

“Each character slowly comes to feel the force of loss, the way the past ‘tends to leak into the present all the time,’ and the deep mystery of love and connection. Campbell probes these complicated ideas in clear, shimmering prose, turning the characters’ engagement with their psyches into something quite intoxicating . . . A heady and heart-filled debut.”—Kirkus Reviews

“In Interpretations of Love, Campbell brings her analytic background to bear on an extended exploration of ambiguity— in love, in questions about free will, and in the unfathomability of both past and future.”—Heller McAlpin, NPR

“Admirers of Mary Wesley will appreciate this impressive debut by another late-looming writer. From its lovely cover to its character-driven plot, this poignant novel is warmly recommended.”—Barbara Love, Library Journal

“Campbell gives visibility to an often invisible generation of women who were shaped by the world wars and the social conventions of the 20th century.”—Toronto.com, “20 Best Books for the Sunny (and Shady) Days Ahead”