First published 2000
In the fading summer of 1920, the Naylor family's estate in County Cork stands as a fragile monument to a vanishing colonial world. Lois, a young woman caught between childhood innocence and adult complexity, watches as the Irish countryside erupts in violent resistance against British rule. Her Anglo-Irish family continues their genteel rituals—tennis matches, afternoon teas—while revolutionary tensions simmer just beyond their manicured grounds. As local tensions escalate and IRA fighters move through the landscape, the Naylors' carefully maintained social order begins to crumble. Their privileged isolation cannot protect them from the political storm gathering around their ancestral home. Each interaction becomes a delicate negotiation between past and present, between what is known and what is irrevocably changing. The last days of an entire social class play out with elegant, devastating precision.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, social-commentary
Setting: London
Period: Post-War
303 pages · Paperback · Anchor