The heartbreaking new novel from the bestselling author of The Road
Home: a story of betrayal, the struggle for happiness and the healing power
of friendship
Gustav Perle grows up in a small town in Switzerland, where the horrors
of the Second World War seem distant. He adores his mother but she treats him
with bitter severity, disapproving especially of his intense friendship with
Anton, the Jewish boy at school. A gifted pianist, Anton is tortured by stage
fright; only in secret games with Gustav does his imagination thrive. But
Gustav is taught that he must develop a hard shell, ‘like a coconut’, to
protect the softness inside – just like the hard shell perfected by his
country, to protect its neutrality.
But despite this hard shell, nothing in Gustav’s life can be called
neutral. Older, and increasingly curious about his absent father, Gustav
discovers the traces of an erotic love affair – traces which still glow
white-hot even now.
Fierce, astringent, profoundly tender – and spanning the twentieth
century – Rose Tremain’s beautifully orchestrated novel explores the big themes
of betrayal and the struggle for happiness, and above all, the passionate love
of a childhood friendship as it is tested over a lifetime.
She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.
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