From the Man Booker Prizeâwinning author of The Line of Beauty: a magnificent, century-spanning saga about a love triangle that spawns a myth, and a family mystery, across generations.
In the late summer of 1913, George Sawle brings his Cambridge schoolmateâa handsome, aristocratic young poet named Cecil Valanceâto his familyâs modest home outside London for the weekend. George is enthralled by Cecil, and soon his sixteen-year-old sister, Daphne, is equally besotted by him and the stories he tells about Corley Court, the country estate he is heir to. But what Cecil writes in Daphneâs autograph album will change their and their familiesâ lives forever: a poem that, after Cecil is killed in the Great War and his reputation burnished, will become a touchstone for a generation, a work recited by every schoolchild in England. Over time, a tragic love story is spun, even as other secrets lie buriedâuntil, decades later, an ambitious biographer threatens to unearth them.
Rich with Hollinghurstâs signature giftsâhaunting sensuality, delicious wit and exquisite lyricismâThe Strangerâs Child is a tour de force: a masterly novel about the lingering power of desire, how the heart creates its own history, and how legends are made.
This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.