David Moffatt

The author conveys the pain of parental grief powerfully. But this is the only positive thing I can say about this novel. The prose is utterly turgid and annoyingly repetitive. Simile upon simile; metaphor upon metaphor. Get on with the story. Please! Except there isn't a one. Apart from: a couple get married and have children, one of whom dies. So let's throw in a theory about Hamlet and add lots of Elizabethan ordure and suffering, and hey presto we have a novel. A bad one.