First published 1990
A wounded British officer arrives at his ancestral estate, carrying the invisible scars of war. His return disrupts a delicate family equilibrium, awakening generations of unspoken tensions and buried resentments. Each family member—his aging parents, bitter siblings, and distant wife—harbors complex motivations that threaten to unravel their fragile social facade. As old grudges surface and wartime trauma bleeds into domestic life, the protagonist must confront the violent ghosts of both his military past and his fractured family history. A taut psychological drama unfolds, where survival means navigating the treacherous emotional landscape between silence and revelation.
Genres: fiction, drama, historical-fiction, 20th-century, psychological-thriller, academic
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fractured-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: England
Period: 20th Century
370 pages · Paperback · Penguin Books
Content warnings: war