Rose Tremain takes us to France in this novel. Rural Cevennes where a collection of rather unhappy characters have assembled to start again, though not necessaily with the consent of their companions.
In fact this is a rather low key, but uneasily bitter book. Characters have hated each other in secret for years. Intimacies are far from kind and seem on the verge of violently explosive release. Grudges are festering away, barely disguised and we have access to the murderously hopeful thoughts of several characters whose prayers we suspect are about to come true- though who will end up dead at the bottom of the river I am not quite sure at the moment. But we do know that secrets will out, and Rose Tremain’s writing makes such a Pandora’s box of a community, darkly compelling.
She is also a writer who never writes the same novel twice. And not a hint of self-biography either- very refreshing and different in our current age of endless confessional narratives!
Not a novel however to encourage relocation or tourism! Easyjet and Ryanair can do without my custom!