Trespass: A Novel - Hardcover

Tremain, Rose

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393079562 ISBN 13: 9780393079562

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010

Synopsis

An electrifying novel about disputed territory, sibling love, and devastating revenge from the celebrated author of The Road Home and Restoration.

In a silent valley in southern France stands an isolated stone farmhouse, the Mas Lunel. Aramon, the owner, is so haunted by his violent past that he's become incapable of all meaningful action, letting his hunting dogs starve and his land go to ruin. Meanwhile, his sister Audrun, alone in her modern bungalow within sight of the Mas Lunel, dreams of exacting retribution for the unspoken betrayals that have blighted her life. Into this closed world comes Anthony Verey, a wealthy but disillusioned antiques dealer from London. When he sets his sights on the Mas, a frightening and unstoppable series of consequences is set in motion.

"Rose Tremain's writing is so good, she makes us hear English anew," writes the San Francisco Chronicle. This powerful and unsettling new work reveals yet another dimension to Tremain's extraordinary imagination.

About this title

About the Author

Rose Tremain's prize-winning books, including The Road Home, The Gustav Sonata, Merivel, and The American Lover, have been published in thirty countries. Chancellor of the University of East Anglia, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and member of the Royal Society of Literature, she lives in Norfolk, England with the biographer Richard Holmes.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Trespass:

“This is a terrific book: accomplished in its poised, imaginative storytelling and in its vivid, sensual rendering of landscape and character, emotion, and memory.”―The Times

“[Tremain] knows how to stretch a good yarn, and this one . . . has an effortless ease to it.”―Financial Times

“The story Tremain weaves between her pair of siblings is taut and full of suspense. . . . Trespass evinces a steely grip on corrupt human nature.”―The Guardian

“A thoroughly engrossing psychological thriller. . . . Tremain’s writing is both vivid and wonderfully compressed, the eye that is cast over proceedings unblinking. . . . From an apparent idyll, Tremain has summoned a spirit of profound disquiet and, as with all her best writing, revealed the anguish that can lie just below the surface of everyday lives.”―The Independent

“As perfect a thriller and a novel as one can find in contemporary fiction, this is not only a gripping read but a thoughtful examination of human moral error.”―City A.M.

“The book feels timeless but rooted, tangible but otherworldly. Meticulously plotted, with the must sadness that comes of cleaving to the past, Trespass will reward your reading . . . and have you questioning if blood is thicker than water after all.”―Scotland on Sunday

Reviews

Two pairs of siblings and their twisted pasts converge in this gripping, dark novel from Orange Prize–winner Tremain (The Road Home). In the southern French Cévennes region, Audrun lives a peaceful if bitter life in a small bungalow a stone's throw from her family home. She's been cast out, either by inheritance or some terrible transgression; her drunken, spiteful brother, Aramon, who still resides there, hopes to sell the home to foreign tourists, an act that would further uproot Audrun. Meanwhile, Anthony Verey, a once-renowned London antiques dealer, having reached an existential precipice, descends on his sister, Veronica, who lives near the Cévennes with her lover, Kitty. As Anthony and Kitty quietly battle for Veronica's affections, Audrun and Aramon struggle with their history and land. Anthony wants a home in the region, hoping it will fill his void, and he joins the wave of foreigners hungrily circling the area. Soon, a series of rash decisions impacts all of their lives in brutal, unforgettable ways. Tremain renders this untamed area with haunting prose, but the affecting sense of dread she builds makes her tale at times unrelentingly grim.
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The word trespass takes on multiple meanings in Tremain’s emotionally searing novel. The lives of two pairs of aging siblings converge and overlap in a lushly neglected valley in the Cévennes region of southern France. With his once-successful career as a London antiques dealer on an increasingly downward spiral, Anthony Verey decides to visit his sister Veronica, now cozily ensconced in the valley with her lover, Kitty. Disillusioned by the negative trajectory of his life and charmed by the feral beauty of the area, he decides to purchase a home nearby, causing friction between Veronica and Kitty. What appears to be the perfect property, the Mas Lunel estate, is haunted by the brutally abusive past of sibling-owners Aramon and Audrun. As these characters trespass on one another physically, emotionally, and psychologically, Tremain ratchets up the suspense, setting the stage for an appropriately dark and bitter denouement. --Margaret Flanagan

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393079562
• ISBN 13: 9780393079562
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 253