The Night Following

On a blustery April day, the quiet, rather private wife of a doctor discovers that her husband has been having an affair. Moments later, driving along a winding country road and distracted perhaps by her own thoughts, perhaps blinded by sunlight, she fails to see sixty-one-year-old Ruth Mitchell up ahead, riding her bicycle. She hits her, killing her instantly. And drives away. The hit-and-run driver is never found. But the doctor's wife, horrified by what she had done, begins to unravel. Soon she turns her attention to Ruth's bereaved husband, a man staggering sleeplessly through each night, as unhinged by grief as the killer is by guilt.Arthur Mitchell does not realise at first that someone has begun watching him through his windows, worrying over his dishevelled appearance, his increasingly chaotic home. And when at last she steps through his doorway, secretly at first, then more boldly, he is ready to believe that, for reasons beyond his understanding, his wife has returned to him..."The Night Following" confirms the mastery of a writer who is both tendering and unflinching in her examination of human frailty - and of the shattering repercussions of deception.

ISBN 0715638254   DEWEY edition DC22 ISBN13 9780715638255 (What's this?)   Pages 368 Publisher Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd   Published in London Imprint Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd   Height (mm) 234 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 156 Publication date 04 Sep 2008   Academic level General DEWEY 823.92

'A dark, psychological study of ... grief, sacrifice and the struggle for redemption, this is an unsettling but absorbing read' - The Herald. Selected by Julie Myerson as a book she'll be giving for Christmas - Good Housekeeping, December issue. 'The Night Following has an arresting central idea, which becomes a compelling plot, superbly developed ... Understated, and written in Joss's - as ever - sparse and elegant prose, this is a novel about us all. It's about the way we hover between what we have to do and what we want to do and what we need to do, and it is beautifully accomplished'- Frank Delaney. 'For her mastery of mood, her complex story lines and her shrewd appreciation of the frail boundaries that divided the sane from the mad, Morag Joss has been compared to - Ruth Rendell, Barbara Vine, and Minette Walters. Such compliments are tossed about too lightly in the publishing world, but this one is so justified it seems like an understatement'- Washington Post. 'Beautifully written and vividly observed, The Night Following is the powerful story of a woman's struggle for redemption. It is a compassionate and moving novel' - Ron Butlin. 'Dazzling ... Richly nuanced and beautifully written' - Seattle Times. 'Joss begins her psychological vivisection where other suspense novels leave off. The results are extraordinary' - Kirkus, (starred review). 'One of Britain's most original crafters of psychological suspense' - Publishers Weekly.

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