When Jenny Thursley, a forty-year old linguistics lecturer, returns to Europe for a conference in Amsterdam, she finds herself pitched back into the presence of a life she had fled. There, she re-encounters a once-inspirational mentor, finds a former lover again within reach, and is surprised by the flickerings of a new longing. Over little more than twenty-four hours Jenny must write a keynote conference speech, face up to her own mortality, and to the consequences of the bad choices she has made – while finding the nerve to make new choices that might be no better.

Witty, sexy and provocative, The Large Door is a meditation on life and living, and on ages – golden and otherwise – that recalls the sparkling mid-century work of writers such as Iris Murdoch and Brigid Brophy.