The Girl On The Landing

Description

Michael is dressing for dinner at a friend's country house in Ireland. As he descends the staircase, he spots a small painting of a landing with an old linen press and the white marble statue of an angel. In the background is a woman clad in a dark green dress.
During dinner, Michael comments on the painting to his hosts but they say there is no woman in the picture.
When Michael goes up to bed later, he sees that they are correct.
This is only the first in a series of incidents that lead Michael to question his grip on reality.
His wife Elilzabeth is unsettled by the changes she sees in a man she originally married because he was dependable and steady, not because she loved him. She realises she has never really known Michael and as he changes, she sees glimpses of someone she could fall in love with.
Michael, in the meantime, is disturbed by events at his family's ancestral home in the wilds of Scotland and by a past that is threatening to destroy everything, and everyone, he has ever loved.

Promotion info

A ghost story, a psychological thriller and a tale of love rediscovered, from the bestselling author of SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN.

Reviews

'The best book of the year...a truly astonishing take on what appears on the surface to be mental illness and turns out to be something far darker' -- Virginia Blackburn SUNDAY EXPRESS 'This is an exciting novel - part love story, part psychological thriller - which confounds your expectations as it tightens its grip.' -- John Koski YOU, MAIL ON SUNDAY 'The story of Michael Gascoigne's strange affinity with the wilderness unravels slowly, tantalisingly...' GUARDIAN 'Torday carries off a surprising, suspenseful update of Stevenson in the 21st-century Jekyll-and-Hyde thriller.' OBSERVER 'Torday is clearly having fun' SUNDAY TIMES 'A highly unusual fusion of atmospheric ghost story and sensitive protrayal of mental illness' GOOD BOOK GUIDE

Author description

Paul Torday was born in 1946 and read English Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford. He spent the next 30 years working in engineering and in industry, after which he scaled back his business responsibilities to fulfil a long-harboured ambition - to write. He burst on to the literary scene in 2006 with his first novel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, an immediate bestseller that has been sold in 19 countries. He is married with two sons by a previous marriage and has two stepsons and lives close to the River North Tyne.