The distant hours : a novel

Title:

Author:

Morton, Kate, 1976-

Personal Author:

Morton, Kate, 1976-

ISBN:

9781439152782

Edition:

1st Atria Books hardcover ed.

Publication Information:

New York : Atria Books, 2010.

Physical Description:

562 p. ; 24 cm.

Abstract:

A long-lost letter arriving at its destination fifty years after it was sent lures Edie Burchill to crumbling Milderhurst Castle, home of the three elderly Blythe sisters, where Edie's mother was sent to stay as a teenager during World War II.

Subject Term:

Mothers and daughters -- Fiction.

Family secrets -- Fiction.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Evacuation of civilians -- Fiction.

World War, 1939-1945 -- England -- Kent.

Genre:

Domestic fiction.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Belmont	Book	FICTION MORTON	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Ginter Park	Book	FICTION MORTON	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Another unforgettable tale weaving together history and mystery from the bestselling author of The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden.

A long lost letter arrives in the post and Edie Burchill finds herself on a journey to Middlhurst Castle, a great but moldering old place, where the Blythe spinsters live and where her mother was billeted fifty years before as a thirteen-year-old child during WW II. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives looking after the third and youngest sister, Juniper, who hasn't been the same since her fiance jilted her in 1941.

Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother's past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Millderhurst, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in "the distant hours" of the past has been waiting a long time for someone to find it.

Morton once again enthralls readers with an atmospheric story featuring characters beset by circumstance and haunted by memory, that reminds us of the rich power of storytelling.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

A letter points the way to a castle in Kent, which harbors decades of grim secrets, in Morton's latest (The House at Riverton, 2008, etc.).Edie, a young woman underemployed by a London small press, is puzzled when her normally placid mother Meredith receives a long-delayed letter and bursts into tears. The letter, it turns out,is from Juniper, one of the three Blythe sisters who inhabit Milderhurst Castle, where Meredith, as a child during World War II, was evacuated to escape the Blitz. From here the story ricochets between the war years and the early 1990s. The evacuation proves to be an unexpected blessing for Meredith, a shy, bookish girl who's misunderstood by her working-class family. Her teacher, Thomas Cavill, encourages her to excel in her studies. She finds true kinship with the three daughters of Raymond Blythe, famed author of a children's classic entitledThe True History of the Mud Man. Raymond, demented and delusional, has secluded himself in his tower room. Much to the chagrin of his eldest daughter Percy, Raymond has evinced an intention to disinherit his daughters. Second sister Saffy schemes to escape the castle for London. Percy is alarmed when Lucy, Milderhurst's last remaining servant, deserts the family for marriage to their clock repairmanPercy's secret crush? Baby sister Juniper meets Thomas when he arrives to check on Meredith. After a whirlwind London love affair, Juniper defies Percy to announce wedding plans. Thrilled, Saffy makes Juniper a party dress and plans an engagement dinner. Juniper and Thomas are due from London by separate trains, but only Juniper shows up. Like Dickens' Miss Havisham, Juniper will grow old, still wearing the tatters of the dress she donned for the fianc who got away. As Edie plumbs Milderhurst's many mysteries, she also struggles to learn what short-circuited her mother's dreams, so briefly kindled 50 years before.After a lengthy buildup, which doggedly connects all the characters, however peripheral, there's a rewarding, bittersweet payoff in the author's most gothic tale yet.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.