En 1950, una joven llamada Coral Glynn acepta un trabajo en una casa de campo inglesa. Deberá cuidar a una anciana enferma, la señora Hart, con la que vive también su hijo Clement, un militar todavía convaleciente de las heridas sufridas durante la segunda guerra mundial. En el frío ambiente de la casa, se produce el acercamiento entre Coral y Clement: dos seres solitarios que se reconocerán mutuamente en el dolor íntimo que uno y otro esconden. Circunstancias aparentemente fortuitas –el encuentro con unos niños, la desaparición de un anillo o una carta extraviada– condicionarán desde el principio su relación. En esta desolada historia de amor Cameron nos habla de la evolución de los sentimientos, de la rapidez con que la soledad y el deseo pueden dar lugar al amor y de cómo este, a veces, puede terminar transformándose en algo menos radical. Con su habitual maestría para crear ambientes y revelar los matices de sus personajes, Cameron nos guía por los sutiles recovecos sentimentales de la historia hasta un inesperado final.

A very atmospheric read (which I read at the same time as listening to the radio play of Ladies In Retirement, which was very similar in some ways). I didn't feel a tremendous amount of connection to any of the characters, particuarly in the first 3/4 of the book. Too much passive voice? Passive action? Action that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me? Anyhoo, a pretty book but a little too shallow, all around. ( )

Peter Cameron’s novel is about people who believe they are out of options and act, or fail to act, out of desperation. In 1950, a young private nurse named Coral Glynn arrives at Hart House in the remote English countryside to care for elderly Edith Hart, who is dying of cancer. Also at Hart House are Major Clement Hart, Mrs. Hart’s middle-age son, who was injured in the recent war, and a surly cook and housekeeper named Mrs. Prence. When Mrs. Hart dies, Clement, faced with a life of solitude, decides that Coral represents his only chance at happiness and asks her to marry him. Coral, utterly alone in the world, having endured an emotionally barren childhood and who was raped at her previous place of employment, comes with issues of her own, mostly having to do with trust and self-worth. With great ambivalence, motivated primarily by the bleak prospects her own future hold out to her, she agrees to become Clement’s wife and the mistress of the house. But there has been a gruesome murder in the picturesque forest behind Hart House, a place where Coral was known to take frequent walks, and she comes under suspicion. Rather than see her arrested, Clement helps her flee. She ends up in London, where she tries to put the murder, Major Hart, and the emotional turmoil she suffered behind her. She builds a new life and meets new people. But the past is never far behind, and two years later when Clement tracks her down, she is forced to settle things once and for all. The novel is short, intricately plotted and fast-paced, and though it seems at times to be composed in a kind of narrative shorthand, it is exquisitely written and emotionally complex. Coral is a fascinating but curiously docile creature whose habit of thinking poorly of herself lands her in hot water more than once. It is only when she learns to assert herself with greater confidence that she begins the process of turning her life around. One of Peter Cameron’s great strengths in his fiction is his ability to inhabit the minds of disparate characters and convincingly convey their desires and motivations to the reader, and in this regard the novel is an undoubted success. Even if a couple of plot elements seem a tad sketchy, Coral Glynn remains an emotionally satisfying and solid entertainment. ( )

Just as delicious as everybody says it is. ( )

In post-war England, Coral Glynn arrives in a remote country-house to nurse a dying woman. While there, she encounters an odds-and-sods cast of characters who each contribute to the books sense of menace. Part gothic romance, part Agatha Christie, and part psychological study of a young woman unsure of her place in the world.