I found the story meandering but oddly compelling, a reserved slice of life with a lot of passions roiling underneath. It opens in 1947, as a group of loosely connected characters are sifting through the useless rubble of their lives after the war. It then jumps backwards twice to 1944 and 1941, during the period of great trauma for England. Ironically, it's in the war that the characters felt more alive to me, active agents of their own fates. Apparently, there are more scintillating Waters novels out there, and this book has piqued my interest.