In The Only Problem, Spark assigns her main character, Harvey, the task of wrestling with the big questions of life and philosophy of religion, as he tries to bang out his monograph about the biblical Job - the problem at hand being how can an omnipotent creator permit suffering in the world? Spark casts the rest of her characters to compare the conventional and the unconventional in life. There’s cheating, partner swapping, the police, and some seclusion in France. So, it’s not too holy, because it’s Spark.

London: The Bodley Head, 1984. First edition. Hardcover, 188 pp. Brown cloth binding and dust jacket in near fine condition.