Overall, I am impressed with this slow burner of a debut which cleverly examines the personal impact on the individual and the family, on the wider community and it shines a spotlight on the justice system. The novel provides much food for thought.

This was a powerful and thought-provoking debut by author Caitlin Wahrer. The characters were well-developed personalities explored in depth. They experienced many conflicting emotions, which were brilliantly conveyed to the reader. There were moral quandaries, dilemmas, and ambivalence in their thoughts and actions. What they believe is the right path to choose may not always be the good one. I wrote the early chapters in about an hour – as though they were being dictated to me. I wrote in longhand, on a lined copy book and I believe, though the originals are now in Boston, that few changes were made to these opening chapters when the novel was published in early 1991. Then, I stopped.The topic of male sexual assault makes this book stand out. This is not a topic usually talked about, and it’s not something that takes center stage in the books that I have read. A satisfying, sensitive and socially conscious thriller that reads like a family drama, but with enough twists and mystery to satisfy any thriller fanatic. Four stars from me. Recommended.

There are so many twists, lies and betrayals counteracting each character's flaws and past. This left me distraught for everyone involved. So many times we are dealt one side, so we automatically assume we know the story....not this time. Lives are changed and critically scarred forever. Some readers may be put off by Damage as the storyline revolves around Dr. Stephen Fleming's passionate and TABOO love affair with a damaged younger woman. I normally don't read stories that deal with adultery, as they tend to piss me off. Josephine Hart poetic writing depicts a love affair that was so brilliantly flawed, I was completely spellbound. Fleming tells us: ‘I eased her gently to the floor. Leaving my elegant disguise on the sofa I became myself.’

The first chapter of this novel is one of the most perfect in English literature. It's really quite amazing, and there are passages throughout that are nearly as good. The novel is perhaps not perfect as a whole, and one sometimes becomes irritated at the "oh aren't we so frightfully correct and conventional" self observational conversations spouted by the characters as a sort of authorial shorthand. On the other hand, the way the novel simmers under its lid and slowly uncoils itself to render its death bite is quite masterly. And there is much sigh-inducing gorgeousness in Hart's prose. It's a sad tale, part Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier, part Nabokov's Lolita in its forbidden (age-gap, but not pedophilic) love, deception and existence of a peripheral character with a mysterious pull, and probably several other novels I'm missing. The most tragic figure in the story is probably Fleming's wife, Ingrid, decent and guileless, and thus eminently destroyable. The main character in this book has always tried to do the right thing. He is a serious straight laced man He's a A loving father and a devoted husband and he is happy in his somewhat sterile but pleasant marriage. The affair with Anna becomes the narrator’s obsession. For the first time in his life he is experiencing strong emotions and he is unable and unwilling to let go of either those emotions or the woman who has triggered them; is at the centre of them. However, when Roger’s eyes met Anna’s for the first time, sparks flew.. In each other, they instantly feel sexual attraction, in the form of extreme weakness and need for each other, due to a mutual brokenness they recognize in each other, a pain they carry from from childhood.

This may be classified as a thriller but I can’t pinpoint a specific genre as it seems to be a combination of several. I would encourage those who enjoy legalese, police procedurals, and thoughtful family drama to consider this too.Una trama all’apparenza semplice, un uomo di mezza eta’ con una famiglia perfetta, un lavoro perfetto, una posizione pubblica perfetta, insomma una vita perfetta e come tutte le cose troppo perfette destinata a crollare al primo soffio di vento; in realta’ e’ chiaro da subito che il protagonista vive incastrato consapevolmente nell’apparenza di una vita tranquilla, e infatti in quell’istante che puo' capitare a chiunque in cui deve decidere se restare nel suo piccolo angolo di mondo tranquillo ma vuoto o seguire il cuore e il turbinio di emozioni con tutti i rischi che comporta egli non esita nemmeno un istante, e’ come se dentro di se’ aspettasse quel momento da tempo e si fosse gia’ preparato. Julia, Troy's wife, was a former lawyer who managed to get criminals acquitted or their sentences reduced.. She worries that Troy is losing control and may go too far in his quest for vengeance. She doesn't yet realize how far she will go to protect her family. The close-knit family’s constant support of and belief in Noah is welcome, and Noah’s feelings and reactions after the assault are believable and tough to read about. I really appreciated both the sensitivity and the frankness with which this story was approached. Although a bit long, this book engaged me once again to think about the truthfulness when it becomes a he said/she said or in this case a he said/he said scenario.

Everything changes when he meets Anna Barton, his son’s girlfriend. Although his wife is suspicious of the girl, who is eight year older than her beloved 25 year old son, the narrator feels an instant attraction to her the moment he meets her. An attraction that appears to be mutual since he and Anna start a passionate affair shortly after meeting. In my life, I have travelled far, acquiring loved and unfamiliar companions; a wife, an son, and a daughter. I have lived with them, an loving alien in surrounds of unsatisfying beauty. An efficient dissembler, I gently and silently smoothed the rough edges of my being. I hid the awkwardness and pain which I inclined towards my chosen outline, and tried to be what those loved expected me to be- a good husband, a good father, and a good son."

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This typically only happens with older books, but it happens to the older books on my shelves quite often. I have a baggy full of spines just waiting to be reattached to their books. You’ll need binding tape, a bone folder, glue and paint, and something soft to wrap the book in, like a T-shirt or a non-adhesive bandage or wrap.