The Girl On The Landing - Hardcover

Torday, Paul

3.58

2,385 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297855255 ISBN 13: 9780297855255

Publisher: W&N, 2009

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The novel begins as Michael, a middle-aged man of means, is dressing for dinner at a friend's country house in Ireland. As he descends the grand staircase, he spots a small painting of a landing with an old linen press and the white marble statue of an angel. In the background is a woman clad in a dark green dress. During dinner, Michael comments on the painting to his hosts but they say there is no woman in the picture. When Michael goes up to bed later, he sees that they are correct.

This is only the first in a series of incidents that lead Michael to question his grip on reality. His wife Elilzabeth is unsettled by the changes she sees in a man she originally married because he was dependable and steady, not because she loved him. Suddenly she is aware that she has never really known Michael and as he changes, she sees glimpses of someone she could fall in love with. Michael, in the meantime, is disturbed by events at his family's ancestral home in the wilds of Scotland and by a past that he is threatening to destroy everything, and everyone, he has ever loved.

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Review:

Torday is a gifted writer, I loved it (THE BOOKSELLER Alice O'Keefe)

It seems Paul Torday can do no wrong. The Girl on the Landing is his third book and destined to do as well as the other two. (Caroline Jowett DAILY EXPRESS)

The author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen impresses again with this absorbing tale of identity (PSYCHOLOGIES)

the finale is terrifying, harking back to old-fashioned ghost stories, but with a modern, plausible twist - it stood the hairs of my arms on end (Toby Clements DAILY TELEGRAPH)

Torday skilfully maintains a knife-edge tension... an original and satisfying thriller (Michael Arditti DAILY MAIL)

A gently comic novel about schizophrenia sounds like the worst idea ever, but Torday pulls it off magnificently.. a clever, gripping novel (John O'Connell THE TIMES)

Paul Torday's third and extremely accomplished novel.. is another tour de force from one of our best emerging writers (Virginia Blackburn DAILY EXPRESS)

compelling and totally captivating (BELLA)

Five stars (HOTSTARS)

his prose remains anything but safe. It is supple, skilful and literary... this is a fabulously good yarn. (Kate Kellaway THE OBSERVER)

Book Description:

A ghost story, a psychological thriller and a tale of love rediscovered, THE GIRL ON THE LANDING is the gripping new novel from the author of SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN

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