A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

In the spring of 1950, Coral Glynn arrives at an isolated mansion in the English countryside to nurse the elderly Edith Hart. There, Coral meets Hart House's odd inhabitants: Mrs. Prence, the perpetually disgruntled housekeeper, and Major Clement Hart, her charge's war-ravaged son. When a child's game goes violently awry in the nearby woods, a great shadow--love, perhaps--descends upon its residents. Other seemingly random events--a torn dress, a missing ring, a lost letter--propel Coral and Clement precipitously into the mysterious thicket of marriage.

Written with his unique sense of wit and empathy, Peter Cameron's brilliant novel is a stunning exploration of how need and desire can blossom into love--and just as quickly transform into something less categorical.