Dimensions
129 x 197 x 20mm
In the winter of 1880 John Stannard, a young provincial architect, arrives in a remote English village to oversee the restoration of its decaying church. Deeply resistant to what he regards as superstition and sentimentality, he has little time for the ways of the villagers or for the rector's fascination with the building's rich history.
He proceeds to inflict irreparable damage, not only on the church, but on the people he encounters - most notably the local beauty who becomes the focus of his confused passions.
This is the tale of a man who clings ferociously to his warped notion of civilised behaviour, unwilling to admit his need for love. Taut with foreboding, this mesmerising first novel explores our capacity for delusion - the stories we tell each other and the stories we tell ourselves.
