Gather the Bones

May 11, 2015
Likable, relatable characters augment Stuart’s compelling romantic ghost story set in post-WWI England. When war widow Helen Morrow visits the family home of Charlie, her deceased husband, for the first time, she is greeted by his resentful mother. The fact that Helen is Australian is enough to turn Lady Evelyn Morrow and all of her peers against the “colonial interloper,” even to the point of snubbing Helen and Charlie’s young child. Helen’s only ally is Charlie’s cousin Paul, a recluse recovering from his own war injuries and tortured by painful memories. When eerie manifestations begin to haunt the pair, it’s easy for Paul to dismiss them as nothing—or perhaps as symptoms of his battle-related trauma. But as ghosts from both the recent and the distant past encroach, Paul and Helen are drawn toward each other. A little predictability doesn’t detract from Stuart’s beautifully drawn story about the damage wrought by war and xenophobia, and the transcendent power of love.