Author:Robert Edric
Late summer 1946: the Wash on the Fenland coast. Into a suspicious and isolated community comes James Mercer, until recently a serving captain in the Engineers, who is now employed in the demolition of redundant gun platforms. A relationship grows between Mercer and the wife and daughter of a soldier who is soon expected home - though he is returning not from active service but from a sentence in military gaol, and his arrival is awaited with anxiety.
Mercer also befriends Mathias, a German prisoner of war engaged in similar work who has no wish to be repatriated; and Jacob, a Jew, former glassmaker and camp survivor, of whose devastated journey to this isolated place Mercer gradually learns. He learns, too, of the bond between the German and the Jew and is drawn further into their history as the ex-soldier finally returns and begins to re-establish his overbearing authority.
In a place where nothing has changed for decades, the agents of destruction and renewal are at work and everyone begins to search for his or her piece of solid ground. As the summer dies, animosities flare, prejudices and enmities are burnished and the six main characters circle each other like the combatants they believe themselves to be - each man or woman constrained by an intractable moral code, the loss of which is unthinkable. And Mercer finds himself caught in the centre as events quicken to their violent and unexpected conclusion.
In his powerful new novel, Edric captures with breathtaking economy the sense of portent and uncertainty shared by a community in the aftermath of conflict - a community for which peacetime is hardly any different to wartime.
'As carefully crafted as the glass bowls that Jacob makes to find solace. It is a novel wrapped or revealed by layer after layer of inferences and resonances, all moving towards a telling symmetry, and the disclosure of simple yet emotional stories of suffering and survival'
—— James Hopkin , Independent on Sunday'Edric's language has a mythic, almost biblical quality, where every word carries due weight and you have the eerie sense of things being left out . . . what makes Edric's writing profound is his refusal to be tidy or dogmatic . . . he is a great novelist'
—— John de Falbe , Spectator'Peacetime gradually unravels the contradictory human impulses that bind lives . . . a moral dissection of loyalty, forgiveness and hatred'
—— James Urquhart , The Times'A novel of ambition and skill, at once a historical meditation, an evocation of a disintegrating society and, perhaps most strikingly, a family melodrama'
—— Francis Gilbert , New Statesman'Has a seriousness and a psychological edge that nine out of ten novelists would give their eye teeth to possess'
—— D.J. Taylor , The Sunday Times'A marvel of psychological insight and subtly observed relations. Its spare, unadorned prose has poetic resonance'
—— Ian Thompson , GuardianNobody tops Russo for nailing the self-aggrandising sourness of a certain class of American intelligentsia. Hollywood agents should be on standby
—— Alfred Hickling , GuardianRusso's well-scripted story of mid-life crisis breezily captures the moment when everything was predictable and yet somehow you failed to see it coming
—— Emma Hagestadt , THe IndependentBeautiful, clean prose...[an] absorbing story
—— Literary ReviewA clever novel that's timeless in its tension-building storytelling
—— Good HousekeepingA chilling tale of a farming family
—— Fanny Blake , Woman and HomeTaut novella
—— James Urquhart , Financial TimesMisery memoirs may no longer be the flavour of the month, but according to Susan Hill's new novel, their consequences can be far reaching. In search of a quick buck, middle-aged journalist Frank Prime pens a bestseller detailing his childhood on a remote North Country farm.
—— Emma Hagestadt , The IndependentNot a word is wasted in this chilling novella
—— Natalie Sanderson , The TimesA thought-provoking story
—— Katie Owen , Sunday TelegraphThis novel is short, beautifully crafted and gripping
—— The Sunday Times MagazineA work of great creepiness and subtle power. It will linger 'orribly in the mind.
—— Nicholas Lezard , The GuardianExpertly structured, her beautifully written prose as haunting as the best ghost story
—— Sophie Missing , ObserverFrom ghost stories to crime thrillers to children's novels, Susan Hill is a writer of striking versatility. 'The Beacon' is a literary novel - done to spectacular effect
—— Catherine Humble , The Telegraph ReviewA marvellous book
—— Winnipeg Free PressA perfectly pitched novel that captures its characters and their dilemmas.
—— Woman and Home
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