Ellory, whose biography reveals a difficult early life, clearly has some experience of tragedy, loneliness and the gloomier corners of the human condition. This is a dark, dark novel, full of misery which is punctuated only by brief moments of light which are quickly and brutally extinguished. It is an emotionally-demaning read and one can only begin to imagine how draining it must have been to write. But for all that it is beautiful, poetic and strangely uplifting and I was desperately sorry when I finished it. It marks Mr Ellory out as a writer of rare emotional range and wonderful story-telling ability.
Sounds like a facinating read. As a somewhat "dark" and gloomy Englishman myself, its possible such a book might be right up my alley. I'll check out reviews online.
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