With a claustrophobic intensity of vision, this book is a challenging, beautifully written novel of disconnect, insanity, and reawakening. A young woman regains consciousness. An elegant old lady degenerates into flailing madness. A beggar counts small change on Westminster Bridge. Hot summer afternoons transform into autumn and winter days and back to summer again. At first, Iris and Rachel are linked only by their illness, but as they heal they grow closer, and soon they are enmeshed in a relationship neither can escape. When Iris insists on writing Rachel s biography, the younger woman is unable to resist; but is her life being reported or created by her self-appointed storyteller?"