East of the Shadows

For twenty-two years, Francis Heathcote has existed in a strange twilight of the mind, conscious of the past but cut off from the present. An accident stole his awareness of time's passage, leaving him stranded in memory. Then he sees Philippa Harford and wakes. But which Philippa? The woman he loved is long dead; this young woman merely bears her face. What begins as pity transforms into something dangerous and tender. Philippa finds herself entangled in a living ghost story, loving a man who loves a memory, not her. When the terrible truth finally breaks through, Barclay asks the only question that matters: can love survive the collision between illusion and reality, or are some awakenings too cruel to bear? A haunting meditation on the lies we tell ourselves for love, and the cost of living in someone else's past.