cover image Persistent Rumours

Persistent Rumours

Lee Langley. Milkweed Editions, $21.95 (294pp) ISBN 978-1-57131-001-9

Multilayered and ambitious, Langley's latest work (winner of England's Writers' Guild/Macallan Award for Best Novel) is at once a heartbreakingly immediate portrait of a nearly moribund marriage and an atmospheric meditation upon colonialism's aftermath and the elusive nature of memory. Throughout, the insistently gripping narrative raises many more questions than it answers; even when the central mystery is ``solved,'' readers are left with much to ponder. Returning in the 1980s, after many years in England, to his birthplace-India's Andaman Islands-arrogant septuagenarianJames hopes to discover the truth about his mother Elizabeth's disappearance when he was eight. Accompanying James is his devoted wife, Daisy, whom he has browbeaten over the years into stunned submission. (That readers are allowed to glimpse the anguish that lies beneath this unlikable man's carapace is one of the many small miracles performed here.) Scenes from James and Daisy's visit are intercut with flashbacks from the past, including excerpts of Elizabeth's diaries, memories of James's school days and snippets of the untarnished beginnings of his and Daisy's relationship. With each meticulously crafted sentence and in nearly palpable detail, Langley (Changes of Address) evokes a shimmering vision of the past and its relation to the present. (Sept.)