Synopsis
When their father runs off with the tobacconist's wife, Isobel and Caro are left to the far from tender mercies of their mother, Iris, who relieves her frustration with bouts of fury towards her elder daughter, Isobel. Bewildered and hurt by their mother's lack of affection, the girls turn inwards for support, erecting a fence of fierce mutual loyalty against the outside world.
Dispatched to a convent school, the sisters find the discipline harsh but they discover, too, a love and security lacking at home . . . until the arrival of cousin Ursula. Ursula perpetrates sly tricks - masked by a deceptively innocent air. Pushed to the limit, Isobel decides to exact her own revenge . . .
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Review
'Roe's novel offers a powerful evocation of sisterly bonds, the agonies of parental remarriage, and life in the closed environment of a convent in the 1940s, while maintaining ... an absorbing plot.' The Sunday Times
[A] novel of great and civilised sensibility, and a real pleasure to read (Fay Weldon, Mail on Sunday)
This convincingly evoked detail provides the background for a tightly controlled plot, whose denouement is concealed until the last possible moment (The Times)
The writing evokes the claustrophobia of convent life where sexual activity can only be spoken of in relation to the Sixth Commandment . . . The evocative descriptions of landscape and the atmospheric touches are well done (Times Literary Supplement)
Book Description
The story of two sisters whose monstrous mother marries again and sends them away to a convent boarding school.
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