Descent: An Irresistible Tragicomedy of Everyday Life is a 2004 roman à clef by Sabrina Broadbent about a troubled marriage. The protagonist, Genevieve, is a psychiatric nurse whose husband, a filmmaker, leaves her at home while he travels the world having sexual intercourse with well-known actresses. Descent was Broadbent's debut novel and is based on her own marriage. After Descent, her next novel was You Don't Have to be Good, which also takes romantic problems as its subject. Descent was the inaugural winner of the W H Smith Raw Talent Award. Stephen Rodrick of The New York Times called Descent "a touching, smart novel."