Kathy, now in her thirties, recalls her childhood at Hailsham, an apparently gentle English boarding school, and her friendships with Ruth and Tommy. The pupils are cared for and encouraged to make art, yet they are kept oddly apart from the world, and the purpose of their upbringing only slowly becomes clear. Set in an alternative late twentieth-century England, the novel is quiet and restrained, and asks what makes a life meaningful when time is limited. It explores love, memory, acceptance and the human cost of scientific progress.
Quotes
It had never occurred to me that our lives, which had been so closely interwoven, could unravel with such speed. If I'd known, maybe I'd have kept tighter hold of them and not let unseen tides pull us apart.
Miss Emily: We didn't have to look into your souls, we had to see if you had souls at all.
Title Card: The breakthrough in medical science came in 1952. Doctors could now cure the previously incurable. By 1967, life expectancy passed 100 years.