A writer's life is upended by her destructive ex-husband in this intensely personal novel by the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Group. Former actress and budding playwright Martha Sinnott longs to recapture the "charmed life" she abandoned when she divorced her first husband. So she returns to her beloved New England artists' colony with her second husband--and discovers that little has changed. The same people make up the same tightly knit society. Nevertheless, her eagerly anticipated homecoming does include some rude awakenings.   Martha's arrogant ex, Miles, is dangerously close by, living with his new wife. The people Martha once counted among her closest friends have become also-rans and never-weres, unhappy and often resentful. And in this pervasive atmosphere of falsehoods and self-delusions, the biggest lie of all is Martha's belief that her reunion with Miles won't somehow wreak terrible havoc on all she holds dear.   A New York Times bestseller by an author with "an icily honest eye and a glacial wit that make her portraits stingingly memorable," A Charmed Life is a smart, mesmerizing portrait of love, marriage, and deception (The New York Times).   This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary McCarthy including rare images from the author's estate.