Set in 18th Century Wales and a present-day town on England’s South coast, two women connect over time, struggle with their demons, act out their suppressed lives, battle with their fathers, lovers, their sexuality.
Darkly humorous, the narrative takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride through the human psyche, into inner and outer landscapes, where a cast of colourful characters pay court, assist, resist and observe the women’s excesses, theatrical and mundane. The narrative weaves in and out of war-zones, feuds, social mores. Mariamne lives again through Hester, who finally lays her ghost to rest.
Hester (contemporary) discovers Mariamne Johnes (1784 – 1811) and becomes obsessed with her, discovers and invents, brings Mariamne back to life. Both women leave traces. From these fragments – voices speaking, calling down a staircase, out of a photograph, from the earth itself – stories and events are spun – discovered or invented. This is echoed in
the novel’s structure. As the facets of a crystal together make the whole, this story lies beyond its traces, perhaps the more haunting for that. Venturing into the hidden lives of both women and their oppressive origins, fragments of other excavations are evoked, the shadows of Kazamiertz and Treblinka, as Hester finally lays Mariamne to rest, having found herself mirrored in the long-dead woman.