My sister called it 'the year of secrets,' but when I look back on it now, I've come to understand that it was a time not of what was there, but of what wasn't.. 'It is a rare writer who can both rouse the mind and grip the heart, and all the while provide the sensuous delights of image and language...a compelling narrative in which the past haunts the present of characters so vividly real they become members of your intimate circle and erupt in your dreams... almost impossible to put down, and even harder not to re-read' Lisa Appignanesi, Independent