Rose Tremain - Trespass

review by Corinna on show 3rd Feb
This book starts off in a very dramatic way with a young girl on a school picnic in Southern France. She wanders away from the group and encounters a horrifying object which terrifies her. What this is we do not discover until much later in the story.

This accomplished novel is about two families. Firstly we have Anthony Verey a wealthy London antique dealer who has become disallusioned with life and his sister,Veronica, a landscape gardener who lives in France with her partner Kitty. Anthony goes on a visit to France and decides to buy a property in the region and move there.

Then we have Aramon Lunel and his sister Audrun. Aramon lives in a crumbling isolated stone farmhouse the Mas Lunel which he can barely look after since he has sunk into an alcoholic stupor. He is haunted by a violent and unhappy past and his relationship with his sister Audrun who lives in a nearby bungalow on the family land, has broken down. She too has distressing memories of family abuse when younger.
Into this dismal equation comes Anthony Verey who is interested in buying the Mas Lunel. There are however, various complications and a gripping plot unfolds. There begins a series of dire consequences.

Rose Tremain writes in a very elegant and compelling way, so that the reader is soon drawn into this rural French world. There is always plenty of information, we learn about Magnaneries, attics where silkworms are hatched. Excellent perceptive sentences e.g. when describing a woman acquaintance “ large but still handsome like a sequinned spinnaker whooshing along”

I have to say that nearly all the main characters are unhappy and miserable and the tale is somewhat depressing but nevertheless it is storytelling at its best, a good read.
review by Corinna