The Crowded Bed - Mary Cavanagh (Transita)
What a story! So powerfully written, I read it eagerly - but now and then had to come up for deep breaths and to reflect!
I was surprised as I began the book on two counts - a female author writing through a male character (but then Susan Hill does the same!)...and how dark the storyline was. Here we have a male jewish doctor murdering his father in law....was this going to be a dark tale of killings such as Harold Shipman?!
It was not to be (fortunately!) and this monster of a doctor we discover...through his reflections of his past life...is no monster at all but a man deeply inlove with his wife, Anna.
Anna is a breath of fresh air to him - a light in his darkness, but she too has a darker side which we discover in the second half of book, where we learn of Anna's story.
I heartily recommend this book - it is complex but the quality of the writing flows throughout. All in all an amazingly good read! One for my Permanant Collection...but I have another going out on a bookring.
Mary has also very kindly given me copies to take to the BookCrossing Convention in Charleston! :)