Turgenev? No. But an equally passionately-written story in plain, beautiful English, evoking cruelties, kindnesses, sorrows in an isolated Yorkshire village, early post-World War 1. High summer. In an ancient church and graveyard, two highly-skilled, horribly psychologically mutilated ex-soldiers, strangers, slowly bond. A mystery is solved. They part, leaving their contracted work finely done. The tiny, diverse village community lives on. Totally unsentimental, just sublime.
(Joan Jackson - bwl 5 October 2000 ) |