Alfie Budd married the love of his life—and then he lost her. He doesn’t believe that you get a second shot at true happiness. Returning to the London he left behind during the brief, idyllic time of his marriage, Alfie finds his world collapsing around him—his parents’ marriage, his beloved grandmother’s health, and his own ambition to be a writer. He takes comfort in a string of causal affairs while he tries to learn Tai Chi from an old Chinese man he meets in the park, George Chang. 

 

Will Alfie ever find a family life as strong as the Changs? Can he give up meaningless sex for a meaningful relationship? And how do you play it when the woman you really like has a child who is infatuated with a TV wrestler called The Slab? 

 

In this story of love, sex, tragedy, family and redemption, one man searches for the courage to love again.