Shell-shocked and haunted by the death of his best friend, Daniel Branwell returns to his childhood village where he no longer has any family ties. He is offered shelter by an elderly blind woman and, when she dies, takes over her isolated cottage setting in train the events and lies, of omission and commission, which drive the story to its conclusion.
The prose is sensual, intense, poetic and compelling. Told in the first person, shifting between present reality and the disorder of Daniel’s haunted memories, it vividly conjures the largely invisible wounds of traumatic memory and bereavement.
A more detailed review can be found here.