Dazzling in its structure and shattering in its emotional force, Graham Swift's spans two centuries and settings from the adulterous bedrooms of postwar Paris to the contemporary entanglements in the groves of academe. It is the story of Bill Unwin, a man haunted by the death of his beautify wife and a survivor himself of a recent brush with mortality. And although it touches on Darwin and dinosaurs, bees and bridge builders, the true subject of is nothing less than the eternal question, "Why should things matter?"
" is explicitly concerned with historical investigation, love, death, family affairs…. It moves quickly, and it vibrates with feeling and thought."-
