by Rose Tremain
First published 2013
Anthony Verey arrives in southern France with money and ambition. The wealthy London antiques dealer has found his prize: the Mas Lunel, a stone farmhouse sitting alone in a quiet valley. But the property comes with complications. Aramon, the current owner, cannot escape memories of violence that paralyze him. His hunting dogs grow thin while his fields turn wild. Nearby, his sister Audrun watches from her bungalow. She nurses old wounds and plots revenge for betrayals that neither sibling speaks aloud. When Anthony makes his move on the farmhouse, he triggers forces he cannot control. The valley's buried secrets surface. Past violence threatens to repeat itself. Three lives collide in a place where silence has preserved decades of resentment and guilt.
Genres: fiction, drama, literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, past-trauma, unreliable-narrator
Setting: France, Mas Lunel, Southern France
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
334 pages · Paperback · Suhrkamp
Content warnings: violence