by Robert Edric (2002)
"Late summer 1946: a demobilized British officer oversees the demolishing of a defunct lighthouse in the Wash, a marshy area on England's west coast. Mercer, unhappy with his work crew and lonely staying in the remains of an old building on the site, attempts to get to know some of the local residents. Mercer complicates his relationship with them by cultivating friendships with a German POW, who wants to remain in England after the war, and a Dutch Jew, who is haunted by memories of the sister he couldn't save in the concentration camps. Tensions caused by the implications of Mercer's project and by the presence of foreigners in this isolated English area ultimately erupt in cruelty and violence.
Jon McGregor
On a street in an unnamed town in the north of England, perfectly ordinary people are doing totally ordinary things - but then a terrible event shatters the quiet of the early summer evening and no one who witnesses it will be quite the same again.
William Trevor
"Captain Gault had seen off the three intruders easily enough. They had come in the night with the intention of firing the house, but a single shot had sent them scuttling back into the darkness. One, though, had been wounded and for that the Gaults were not forgiven: sooner or later there would be trouble again. Other big-house families had been driven out - the Morells from Clashmore, the Gouvernets, the Priors, the Swifts. It was time to go too.". "But Lucy, soon to be nine, the only child of the household, could not bear the thought of leaving Lahardane. Her world was the old house itself, the woods of the glen, the farm animals, the walk along the seashore to school. All of that she loved and as the day of departure grew closer she determined that this exile should not take place. But chance changed everything, bringing about a calamity so terrible that it might have been a punishment, so vicious that it blighted the lives of all the Gaults for many years to come.". "William Trevor's new novel begins in rural Cork in 1921, in a country still in turmoil. The old order has fragmented, a way of life is already over. Trevor brilliantly conveys the disquiet and confusion that colour the story of Lucy Gault as it's told while it happens, in towns and countryside, and told again when passing has made it different."--BOOK JACKET.
Richard B. Wright
Published to rave reviews, with weeks on the bestseller lists and a place as a Globe and Mail Book of the Year, October is an extraordinary meditation on mortality and memory, from Governor General?s Award?winning author Richard B. Wright. Visiting his gravely ill daughter, James Hillyer encounters by chance Gabriel Fontaine, whom he met as a boy while on holiday in Gaspé. At the time, the boys had competed for the love of a French-Canadian girl from the village. Now, over six decades later and faced with the terrible possibility of outliving his own daughter, James is asked by Gabriel to accompany him on a final, unthinkable journey. With superb storytelling, spare writing and characters who feel as real and familiar as old friends, Richard B. Wright weaves a haunting classic of a man searching for answers in the autumn of his life.
Julian Barnes
The Man in the Red Coat is a celebrated work by Julian Barnes (Booker Prize Winner), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.