The Affair cover art

The Affair

Escape to Lake Como with this year’s most intoxicating and emotionally gripping read

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Affair

By: Hilary Boyd
Narrated by: Helen Keeley
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

*ENJOYED THE LIE? ORDER HILARY BOYD'S GRIPPING NEXT BOOK NOW*

An irresistible story of love, lies and obsession that asks the question

CAN YOU EVER WALK AWAY FROM AN AFFAIR?

Escape to the sun-drenched shores of Lake Como in the irresistible and gripping new novel from the million-copy bestselling author of Thursdays in the Park, The Anniversary and The Lie

Connie McCabe longs for the summer where she spends the days leading tours across the continent.

But it's on the glamorous shores of Lake Como where she is truly swept away, when Jared, a much younger man, falls for her.

Despite resisting his advances Connie finds that he's got under her skin.

And so begins a long, hot, intoxicating summer where Connie succumbs and breaks her marriage vows.

At the end of the season Connie returns home to her husband, wanting to put this affair behind her.

But Jared has other ideas . . .

Praise for Hilary Boyd

'Hilary Boyd nails family dynamics and misplaced loyalties with pin-sharp precision in an impressively well-written tale' Daily Express

'I was ripping through this book . . . addictive'
Evening Standard

'Boyd is as canny as Joanna Trollope at observing family life'
Daily Mail

© Hilary Boyd 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Love, Dating & Attraction Relationships Romantic Suspense Women's Fiction Marriage

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Hidden Truth cover art
The World Outside My Window cover art
A Perfect Husband cover art
Thursdays in the Park cover art
The Perfect Girlfriend cover art
The Doctor's Wife cover art
The Woman in My Home cover art
The Wedding Guest cover art
Happily Married cover art
Black Heart cover art
A Year at Appleyard Farm cover art
The Judas Tree cover art
All Good Things cover art
Don't Let Her Stay cover art
The Lie cover art
The Secret Sister cover art

Critic reviews

A simmering slow-burner full of obsession, drama and complicated relationships
A tension packed read
Breathless and brilliant
Included in 'The Hot List'
A breath of fresh air . . . An excellent companion for a weekend away
Praise for Hilary Boyd
As canny as Joanna Trollope at observing family life - and better at jokes
Smart, with true-to-life characters whose dilemmas will tear at your heartstrings
Boyd is terrific at cutting to the quick of modern relationships
All stars
Most relevant
I enjoyed this story. It is perhaps a bit long-winded, but still worth a listen. At times it almost becomes a thriller, but then a little disappointingly, slips back into a saga of a troubled middle class and middle aged marriage, catastrophically disrupted by an affair.

No more spoilers, enough to say that it was unusual enough to hold my interest through the slow parts of the story, and it is very well narrated.

An intriguing story, well narrated

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This was a soft story and easy to listen to. The narrator was brilliant. Thoroughly enjoyed

Easy listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I really enjoy this authors work, but I just could not get over the narrator. The tone is bland and almost sing-song. If someone else had narrated this Im sure I would have made it to the end and enjoyed the audio

Could not cope with the bland narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

As always, loved this author's work.
This book had everything....a love story, suspense, travel.
Hillary Boyd writes very well, pacing the plot to keep the reader's interest and her description of the countries mentioned was good
Her vocabulary is extensive and that is refreshing in modern literature.
I like her books because the characters are "of a certain age" and I can relate to them.
The narrator, Helen Keeley, was brilliant too and brought the story to life.

Excellent!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

story line excellent and tension is skilfully built but it never reaches a satisfactory conclusion. Narration good in the main except for the terrible accent used for Deven. No Irish Doctor would speak like that! It sounds like a combination of a West Country burr and working class Dublinese.

Promises more 6han it delivers

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews