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FROM THE SHORTLISTED AUTHOR FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

‘Molly Keane is astonishing . . . an exquisitely written black comedy with a shock ending’ GUARDIAN

‘Quite the best book she has written’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘I admired many authors. But Molly, I loved’ DIANA ATHILL

In 1914, when Nicandra is eight, all is well in the grand Irish estate, Deer Forest. Maman is beautiful and adored. Dada, silent and small, mooches contendedly around the stables. Aunt Tossie, of the giant heart and bosom, is widowed but looks splendid in weeds. The butler, the groom, the landsteward, the maids, the men – each as a place and knows it. Then, astonishingly, the perfect surface is shattered; Maman does something too dreadful ever to be spoken of.