At forty-two, Reginald Kingsnorth has made peace with his small life at Restham Manor, a peace that feels suspiciously like surrender. Under the watchful eye of his sister Annabel, he has built an existence of comfortable routine, carefully avoiding the risks that might have disappointed his demanding father or the woman he loved and lost. Then Arthur Blathwayte arrives with news: their old friend Wildacre is dead, and his children, the twins Frank and Fay, need a home. As Reginald prepares for their arrival, he finds himself confronting the life he didn't live, the man he was too afraid to become, and the quiet catastrophe of choices made and unmade. This is a novel about the particular terror of standing still while the world moves on, and whether it's ever truly too late to step forward again. For readers who savor quiet devastation, Edwardian introspection, and the particular ache of English novels about regret.
