Rough Music

Beautifully written and deeply compassionate, Rough Music is a novel of
one family at two defining points in time. Seamlessly alternating
between the present day and a summer thirty years past, its twin stories
unfold at a cottage along the eastern coast of England.Will
Pagett receives an unexpected gift on his fortieth birthday, two weeks
at a perfect beach house in Cornwall. Seeking some distance from the
married man with whom he's having an affair, he invites his aging mother
and father to share his holiday, knowing the sun and sea will be a
welcome change for. But the cottage and the stretch of sand before it
seem somehow familiar and memories of a summer long ago begin to
surface. Thirty-two years earlier. A young married couple and
their eight year-old son begin two idyllic weeks at a beach house in
Cornwall. But the sudden arrival of unknown American relatives has
devastating consequences, turning what was to be a moment of
reconciliation into an act of betrayal that will cast a lengthy shadow.As
Patrick Gale masterfully unspools these parallel stories, we see their
subtle and surprising reflections in each other and discover how the
forgotten dramas of childhood are reenacted throughout our lives.Deftly
navigating the terrain between humor and tragedy, Patrick Gale has
written an unforgettable novel about the lies that adults tell and the
small acts of treason that children can commit. Rough Music gracefully
illuminates the merciful tricks of memory and the courage with which we
continue to assert our belief in love and happiness.