Having returned home to Wales for her mother’s funeral, actress Kate Rivers is overwhelmed by her past and forced to take stock of her life.
From nursing her depressed mother as a child, through to her successful career and relationship with handsome photographer, Paul, past and present bombard Kate as she revisits the cottage and village in which she grew up.
Her mother recovered her health and enjoyed her daughter’s stage and TV success. And Kate has a comfortable London life in acting and as a partner and unofficial stepmother to Paul’s unlikeable twin daughters.
But now, when she needs him most, Paul is not there, tragedy having overtaken his own family. And as she renews old friendships and faces up to the pain of her childhood, Kate finds herself questioning their relationship and drawn to her charismatic – and married – cousin, Rhydian. But is her affair a second chance at happiness or just a dangerous infatuation?
Both in her central characters and the land in which they live, James’ novel reveals a spirit which, despite bleakness and tragedies, cannot be broken.
First published in 2000, this Seren edition is a reprint of one of Sian James’ most widely acclaimed novels.
Sian James writes fluently, with both panache and humour. Her style is at once homely, unpretentious and brilliantly realistic. Without straining for effect she creates a powerful mental world into which we are irresistibly draw