I wish I could remember where this recommendation came from! It doesn't seem to have been from LT, and since the book is not even published in the UK, it can't have been from any newspaper reviews. But it was an astounding discovery, from the first page.

Martin has just returned to Australia - with his beloved English wife - after ten years spent in London. One of the first things they do is look up the old friend from medical school whom he has always loved and looked up to. But they find Felix dramatically changed - cynical, confrontational, unwelcoming. Despite this, Martin and Lucy try and reach out to him, and there are signs that they are getting through. But what will they need to sacrifice in the process?

I found this book almost breathtaking. Although the storyline is fairly unlikely, the quality of the writing more than makes up for it, carrying the reader along and making the wildest events seems plausible. One example of this is that although Felix is almost unforgivably rude at their first meeting, the reader can completely understand what it is about him which makes Martin and Lucy persevere. And the events of the story unfold with a sort of tragic inevitability.

Goldsworthy also handles extremely well the variations of tone within the story - the drama of the main story, with, for example, the humour and cringing embarrassment of the social occasions involving the pompous senior doctor.

Sample: Our eyes lock. My heart hammers against the bars of its cage. Standard boy-meets-girl disruptions to physiology, but I have never felt them so powerfully. I feel unstable inside, as if all my organs have shaken loose from their bony shelves and leapt out into the unknown.

Recommended for: anyone who is prepared to give this unlikely story a go. ( )