Shade

"Recreates the drained landscape with the vivid care of a Dutch painting, and infuses it with longing...Wonderfully elegiac...powerfully visual." -- The Observer Nina Hardy has been murdered, killed by her childhood friend George. But her body is never found, and she remains a silent shade, watching -- and retelling -- the events of her life, and afterlife. Nina's half brother, Gregory, makes a pilgrimage home for her funeral. There he finds Janie, George's sister and the fourth member of their childhood gang. With Nina's shade as witness, they retrace a seemingly idyllic Irish childhood beside the mudflats of the River Boyne. As the children reach adolescence, however, the fragile balance of their friendships is interrupted. Torn apart by the outbreak of war, they find that each has changed almost beyond recognition. And by the end the seemingly senseless crime with which the story begins is revealed in all its full and heartbreaking meaning. Niel Jordan is the award-winning writer and director of such films as Mona Lisa, The End of the Affair, and The Crying Game, for which he won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. He is also the author of three previous novels and a short-story collection.