The thing of it is ..

the long version

A young couple goes on vacation in London, Rome and Venice, in the hope of salvaging their faltering marriage. The quarrels, the agonies, the bickering and the swift changes of moods of Amos and Lila McCracken are fiercely and poignantly familiar, yet Goldman renders his domestic crisis as freshly as he does the character of their precocious little girl. This strong and moving novel attains a climax that is shattering in the outrageously sad and funny reaches of its inimitably fallible humanness.--From publisher description.