by Allan Hollinghurst. On the eve of World War I, Cecil Valance, a wildly attractive and promising young poet, pays a visit to the home of his Cambridge boyfriend, the son of one of England's fine old families. He memorializes the visit with a poem that becomes famous after his wartime death. The poem, created as an autograph book keepsake for his lover's younger sister, Daphne, becomes the subject of speculation and debate for biographers and the generations that follow, as it contains hints about what might have happened during the visit and with whom. As the novel gallops ahead decade by decade, following the family fortunes of Daphne and her progeny, the events of that less tolerant era are viewed through an ever-cloudier lens. VERDICT With the prewar ambience of "Atonement", the manor-house mystique of "Gosford Park", and the palpable sexual tension of Hollinghurst's own "The Line of Beauty", this generously paced, thoroughly satisfying novel will gladden the hearts of Anglophile readers. --Library Journal
(Check Catalog)
