Farrar, Straus and Giroux
March 2012
On Sale: February 28, 2012
Featuring: Coral Glynn
242 pages ISBN: 0374299013 EAN: 9780374299019 Kindle: B005N8ZH84 Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
Coral Glynn arrives at Hart House, an isolated manse in the English countryside, early in the very wet spring of 1950, to nurse the elderly Mrs. Hart, who is dying of cancer. Hart House is also inhabited by Mrs. Prence, the perpetually disgruntled housekeeper, and Major Clement Hart, Mrs. Hartβs war-ravaged son, who is struggling to come to terms with his latent homosexuality. When a childβs game goes violently awry in the woods surrounding Hart House, a great shadowβlove, perhapsβdescends upon its inhabitants. Like the misguided childβs play, other seemingly random eventsβa torn dress, a missing ring, a lost letterβpropel Coral and Clement into the dark thicket of marriage.
A period novel observed through a refreshingly gimlet eye, Coral Glynn explores how quickly need and desire can blossom into love, and just as quickly transform into something less categorical. Borrowing from themes and characters prevalent in the work of mid-twentieth-century British women writers, Peter Cameron examines how we live and how we loveβwith his customary empathy and wit.
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