Ted Hughes married Sylvia Plath in 1956, at the outset of their brilliant careers. Many held Hughes accountable for her suicide six-and-a-half years later. How marriages fail and how men fail in marriages is one of the books central themes.

Diane Middlebrook is the author of two highly praised, best-selling biographies, Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton and Anne Sexton, which was a finalist for both a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award. A former professor at Stanford University, she lives in San Francisco and London.