Book description
Two sisters are distressed and disturbed by their father's display of
'desperate, choking, terrified devotion' to their mother as she lies
dying in her bed. Time begins to heal the wounds inflicted by the
loss, yet the sisters fear that their father may never recover. But as
the ghost of his grief finally begins to relinquish its hold over the
family home, the sisters are surprised to find that it is they who are
totally unprepared for their father's first steps into an unforeseen future.
Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously
published in the collection The Boy Who Taught the Beekeeper to Read
Susan Hill's novels and short stories have won the Whitbread,
Somerset Maugham and John Llewellyn Rhys awards and been shortlisted
for the Booker Prize. She is the author of over fifty books, including
the five previous Serrailler crime novels, The Various Haunts of
Men, The Pure in Heart, The Risk of Darkness, The
Vows of Silence and The Shadows in the Street. The play
adapted from her famous ghost story, The Woman in Black, has been
running in the West End since 1989; it has also recently been made
into a film starring Daniel Radcliffe.
Susan Hill was born in Scarborough and educated at King's College
London. She is married to the Shakespeare scholar, Stanley Wells, and
they have two daughters. She lives in Gloucestershire, where she runs
her own small publishing firm, Long Barn Books.
