Contrasting styles of descriptive debut

Attachment. By Isabel Fonseca, Random House, €14

Though this is her fiction debut , Isabel Fonseca has an impressive resume, having worked as a former assistant editor at the Times Literary Supplement in New York, as well as writing for publications including the Economist and Vogue.

Attachment is the story of Jean Hubbard, a woman of 46 who has been married to Mark for half her life. Originally American, then absorbed by Britain, ...