Edmund has escaped from his family into a lonely life. Returning for his mother's funeral he finds himself involved in the old, awful problems, together with some new ones. One by one his relatives reveal their secrets to a reluctant Edmund: illicit affairs, hidden passions, shameful scandals. And the heart of all, there is, as always, the family's loyal servant, the Italian girl.
Imprint: Vintage Digital
Published: 30/10/2008
ISBN: 9781407019161
Length: 176 Pages
RRP: £8.99
She was always in the front rank of unpredictable, original, serious writers exploring the deeper themes of ancient as well as contemporary experience
Iris Murdoch really knows how to write - she can tell a story, delineate a character, catch an atmosphere with deadly accuracy
I suspect that when the intellectual map of our own times comes to be sketched out, Iris Murdoch will occupy a position analogous to Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky... Murdoch writes better than anyone about the condition of being love: both the ecstatic joys of it and its capacity to turn otherwise decent individuals into monsters of selfishness and cruelty... Her vision of the world is heart-rending, but ultimately celebratory