A Great Marriage

Mayes’s (Under the Tuscan Sun) tender novel follows Dara Willcox and Austin Clarke, who meet at an art gallery and fall hopelessly in love. Convinced they are true soulmates, the couple decide to wed, aided by Dara’s mother, Lee, who plans a lavish Southern wedding. Dara’s parents exemplify a picture-perfect marriage, and her grandmother Charlotte has written a book about what makes a good marriage and what makes a great one. Dara is sure her marriage will be one of the great ones. However, the night before the wedding, Austin reveals a terrible drunken mistake he has made. Dara cancels the wedding, their dreams are shattered, and the trajectories of their lives are changed forever. An ensemble of narrators, led by Cassandra Campbell as Southern Dara and Will Watt as British Austin, offers a nuanced and moving listening experience. Each narrator capably brings the characters to life with a range of accents—American South, British, and Indian.