Out on a headland in West Wales where he goes regularly to watch porpoises, seals and sea birds, Marshall meets, apparently by chance, the enigmatic Anna, to whom he is immediately attracted.
They begin seeing each other, but it is soon set against a background of Marshall being ’stalked’ by someone who appears to have ill-intent towards him - and possibly towards Anna as well.
Marshall and Anna talk about many things that they have done or feel as their relationship intensifies and Marshall in particular, opens up in great detail to Anna about his past life - presented in the book as being written in the third person.
Although they become very close in a short space of time, something about Anna continues to ‘play’ on Marshall’s mind, however.
As the stalking incidents increase and Anna moves in with Marshall for their mutual protection, he is soon to discover that seemingly arbitrary decisions from both his more distant and recent pasts will have devastating consequences for him.
A journey to the accompaniment of musical and other references from the 1960s to the present day - it chronicles how people who are in many ways ‘hangovers’ from times past seek to cope in the modern world. Part thriller and part love story, this novel explores the sometimes convoluted and often contradictory inner landscapes that all of us inhabit - if we would only be honest with ourselves.
All of the characters do what they can and must to survive the roller-coaster lives that they live. The book is uncompromising in its honest treatment of sex, which is a very important aspect of the lives of four of the individuals involved, and warning is given of the very explicit nature of some of the sexual scenes depicted in the book.
