A warm Sunday in November 1957. As Sputnik 2 orbits the earth, carrying Laika, the doomed Soviet dog, a couple begin their day.

Virgil Beckett, an insurance salesman, isn’t particularly happy in his job but he fulfils the role, playing golf with the partners, drinking in the bar, chasing the women. Kathleen Beckett, once a promising tennis champion, with a key shot up her sleeve called ‘The Most’, is now a mother and homemaker. Somehow these two, who have been together since college, have fallen into the roles expected of them – the prescribed suburban dream they have been sold as something to covet, something that will fulfil their lives.

But on this unseasonably warm, early November Sunday, Kathleen wakes up and decides that she will not be accompanying her family to church. No, she feels like a swim. She unearths her old, red bathing suit and descends into the apartment complex pool no other resident uses.

And she doesn’t want to come out…

Praise for Jessica Anthony’s ENTER THE AARDVARK

‘A truly fresh piece of art’ Percival Everett

‘Fresh, witty, smart’ Kate Atkinson

‘Highly inventive’ Joshua Ferris’

A writer possessed of mind-bending talents’ Heidi Julavits