Product Description

Catherine and her brother, Rob, don’t know why they have been abandoned by their parents. Incarcerated in the enormous country house of their grandfather – ‘the man from nowhere’ – they create a refuge against their family’s dark secrets – and the outside world as it moves towards the First World War. As time passes their sibling love deepens and crosses into forbidden territory – but they are not as alone in the house as they believe …

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #274754 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
An intensely gripping book...written so seductively that some passages sing out from the page, like music for the eyes (Sunday Times )

A marvellous novel about forbidden passions (Daily Mail )

An electrifying and original talent, a writer whose style is characterized by a lyrical, dreamy intensity (Guardian )

A hugely involving story which often stops you in your tracks with the beauty of its writing (Observer )

From the Back Cover
'A marvellous novel about forbidden passions' Daily Mail

'An intensely gripping book...written so seductively that some passages
sing out from the page, like music for the eyes' Sunday Times

'A hugely involving story which often stops you in your tracks with the
beauty of its writing' Observer

'An electrifying and original talent, a writer whose style is characterized
by a lyrical, dreamy intensity' Guardian

About the Author
Helen Dunmore has published nine novels with Penguin: Zennor in Darkness, which won the McKitterick Prize; Burning Bright; A Spell of Winter, which won the Orange Prize; Talking to the Dead; Your Blue-Eyed Boy; With Your Crooked Heart; The Siege, which was shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2002; Mourning Ruby and House of Orphans. She is also a poet, children’s novelist and short-story writer.

Customer Reviews

A lyrical and unjudgemental morality tale
A haunting evocation of young souls left to develop alone in a large house full of emotional and financial disintegration. A brother and sister's isolation and loneliness lends their love for each other a new and dangerous bent. Without guidance or boundaries they struggle with the moral and physical implications before one (perhaps) finds redemption and hope.

This novel confronts parental abandonment, mental illness, incest, love and the tragedy of war with the lightest and most effective touch. The natural world and a strongly developed host of supporting characters provide a strong framework for a deeply personal tale.

At times the insights into a young girl's soul (it is written in the first person)seem almost pornographic in their intimacy but they render this work compelling.

A Beautiful Read
The is a well contructed love story told in a graceful and captivating style. The author has been quite brave, yet obviously careful, in her portrayal of an intense sibling relationship turned too far inward to escape the youthful urges of sexuality. The individual's sense of seclusion during harsh and powerful winters is expertly conveyed. However, if your sense of morality is easily threatened, read something else; because, this is a complicated work that teases out taboos in a way in which the reader will never forget.

Beautiful and haunting...
This author's novels win prizes for good reason. There's not a part of this novel that appears out of place. Each and every word fits beautifully into an intricately woven and sorrowfully haunting tale.

A brother and sister are left parentless at an early age. They are brought up in a very sheltered way by a troubled grandfather, and the housemaid (not much older than themselves), in a large and deteriorating country manor. Set around the time of the First World War, this duo are caught up in a period of social hierarchy with high societal moral values. As a result, they find out early on that they have to work together to keep family secrets deeply hidden in the past. Effectively isolated from those around them, they increasingly turn to one another for comfort and their relationship develops into something more...

Take the time to get involved as a reader, right from the very start, and you will be rewarded with an intensely involved story of discovering love and adulthood, learning right and wrong. At times disturbing, challenging the boundaries of sibling love, the simple naivety of the leading character and story-teller, Catherine, encourages an empathetic understanding and sympathy for her plight. Although dark and moving, a glimmer of sunshine and redemption can be found towards the end.