Klappentext

An initially involving but eventually turgid short novel by an award-winning Welsh writer. Protagonist Marian is a widow who runs a small shop in a rural village and is variously influenced and transformed by her relationships with a manless woman friend, a borderline-fey neighbor who "believes in some sort of Earth Magic," and with an imperfectly matched gay couple. An all-too-symbolic approaching storm overhangs an otherwise crisply told story that unwisely ends in a virtual orgy of renunciation and compassionate understanding, placing this curious fiction somewhere between Iris Murdoch and Search for Tomorrow. (Kirkus Reviews)