But his life lacks passion, and his aching emptiness drives him to an all-consuming, and ultimately catastrophic, relationship with his son’s fiancée. This New York Times bestselling novel, now in a brand-new edition, is a daring look at the dangers of obsession and the depth of its shattering consequences. Much is made of Anna’s dark past (it is dark but I won’t reveal why) although I found this aspect of the story a little too contrived, particularly the scenecs where Anna’s mother verbally warns Martyn that Anna has a tortured past and in another scene, when Anna’s stepfather does similar. Sometimes they simply shift the ground under me, so that I stand on different earth, and something or someone has been swallowed up.

the car smash; the letter we shouldn't have opened; the lump in the breast or groin; the blinding flash. You have to accept either as a possibility to become completely absorbed in Damage by Josephine Hart.She got frightened by its inevitable trajectory and left it untouched for many months having considered it far too dangerous to continue. Be it awakening from deep sleep rather than shallow existence, from not feeling into being powerfully overwhelmed by emotions, from building a false self, into being released from the pretenses, from longing for wealth and success into being fused with the significant Other. On a superficial level this might be about a moment of falling in love, but it is a lot deeper than that. Tsunami, avalanche, major fire spring to mind all could be conceived of as an act of God or the work of evil. Josephine Hart must have recognized the force majeure in her own writing when she abandoned the first page of the novel as yet unwritten.

Damage is a perfect example of how the near inter-uterine bond between a brother and a sister that ruptured at the tender adolescent age was carried by Anna Barton forevermore.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. From a psychological point of view this might be seen also as primal original event which will set into motion an avalanche of other equally inescapable and devastating events that will impact upon the lives of those at the epicentre and those at the peripheries. Chilling and brilliant, Damage is a New York Times bestselling masterpiece of the romantic suspense genre. Thanks only to the encouragements of her editor that the novel was finished as it was probably intended from the beginning. Josephine Hart’s international bestselling novels include Damage, Sin, Oblivion, and The Truth About Love.

Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext Portrait of an obsession … Juliette Bincohe and Jeremy Irons in Damage, directed by Louis Malle (1992). there are those born in rolling countryside who are really only at ease in the intense and busy loneliness of the city.The books featured on this site are aimed primarily at readers aged 13 or above and therefore you must be 13 years or over to sign up to our newsletter.