'On the last plane out of Communist-besieged Tao-ling, Lisa, and Austrian ex-patriot, meets two men: Marcus, whom she marries, and Richard, who cannot forget her.
The story of Lisa's love for both her husband and for her lover and of the conflicts which prevent her from abandoning a derelict marriage is told with sympathetic warmth.
The plot, tightly knit, moves fast against a backdrop of vivid beauty - that sparkling strip of wooden hill lying between the Pacific ocean and the calm waters of Broken Bay.
Equal in significance, however, is the characterisation which brings the story to life; Richard's mother, vital, indomitable, obtuse; Ernest, who asks only for affection; Cassandra, who has known love and cannot accept a substitute; and lastly and most penetratingly, Mrs. Moult, the Dutch refugee, insecure, frightened, warped.
Coward's Kiss is a novel of today. It mirrors the complexities of a changing world with its shifting standards and nebulous values. It is a story in which most readers will see something of themselves.' (Publisher's blurb)
Epigraph:
'...yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword.'
-Oscar Wilde
