Blanche

Five men literally and metaphorically 'miss the boat' and as a consequence find themselves sharing a cottage on a neglected country estate. Into the midst of their amiable, haphazard and ramshackle existence comes Blanche. Enigmatic, beautiful, secretive and bedevilled, like the goddess Kali, Blanche has the power to create and affirm or bring about chaos and destruction. The reader is drawn into the enchantment of the lives shared in the communal cottage: the remoteness from modernity and the evocation of each changing season weaves a powerful spell. Whilst livings must be earned elsewhere, real life happens only in and around the brooding environs of the estate. But even in this place set apart, fate must run its course. No one is inviolable and tragedy when it strikes is sudden and final... and yet not entirely irrevocable because in time, so much is healed - until the ending startles with its proof of ultimate integration.Blanche is a haunting, atmospheric love story, and as with all John Moat's writing, what is happening on the surface is merely a reflection: the real story - the authentic communication - is taking place elsewhere. With an uncanny ability to tap into invisible dimensions, Moat adeptly conveys this otherworldly presence: one that subtly informs and shapes events, yet one of which, we are at best, only half aware.