One family, one town, devastated by one tragic event.
Can you ever know what those closest to you are really capable of?
When Stephen gets a phone call to say his mother isn’t well, he knows he must go to her straight away. But he dreads going back. He has never been able to understand why his mother chose to stay in the town he grew up in, after everything that happened. One day’s tragic events years before had left no one living there untouched.
Stephen’s own dark memories are still poisoning his life, as well as his marriage. Perhaps now is the time to go back and confront the place and the people of his shattered childhood. But will he ever be able to understand the crime that punctured their lives so brutally? How can a community move on from such a terrible legacy?
I’m thrilled to welcome Tom Vowler to the Nut Press today as part of the blog tour for his brilliant second novel, That Dark Remembered Day, which I reviewed here. If you’re still looking to add to your summer reading, it’s definitely worth including. It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year.
I need to head off to the pavilion to make the teas, so I’ll hand over to Tom now…
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Very occasionally I play cricket for the Authors XI, a team of literary folk treading in the footsteps of Arthur Conan Doyle, P G Wodehouse and J M Barrie. And so Kathryn challenged me to list my all-time writerly XI, not necessarily for their cricketing potential, but for who I’d most like to play with, and why.
- J. M. Coetzee – trusted maestro, even his modest innings don’t disappoint.
- A. Walker – never far from a Purple patch, often fined for outbursts.
- E. Hemingway – huge bat, puts fear of god into the bowlers, buys all the drinks.
- L. Shriver – ballsy, fearless. Likes to come down the track, never a backwards step.
- D. Vann – dashing newcomer blazing a trail. Scores well in overseas.
- J. Banville – classy virtuoso, larger array of shots than anyone else.
- S. Hall – masterful all-rounder (novels/short stories), rarely disappoints.
- D. Lessing – plays in her own mercurial way, loves the switch-hit.
- F. Kafka – tortured spin bowler, sees DRS as an allegory for life’s cruelty.
- A. Chekhov – short spells of genius, always takes the new cherry (Orchard).
- W. Trevor – mature stalwart, supremely dependable. Bats with a pipe.
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I really can’t fault that selection. Tom’ll be making another one soon and it could be you. Just leave a comment below to be in with a chance of winning a copy of That Dark Remembered Day.
Tom Vowler is a novelist and short story writer living in south west England. His debut collection, The Method, won the Scott Prize in 2010, and his novel What Lies Within received critical acclaim. He is co-editor of the literary journal Short Fiction and an associate lecturer in creative writing at Plymouth University, where he’s completing a PhD looking at the role of the editor in fiction. His second novel, That Dark Remembered Day, was published in early 2014. More at www.tomvowler.co.uk
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