Last Guests of the Season

In a remote mountain village in northern Portugal, a blue-shattered house in a garden of lemon trees overlooks the village, the valley, the winding river. Here, hundreds of miles from their London homes, two English families have come for a summer holiday. They do not know each other well, these families, although Claire, in university days, once thought she knew shy, self-contained Frances as well as anyone. By chance they have bumped into each other again; on impulse she invites Frances, her husband Oliver and Tom, their six-year-old son, to join her own family in Portugal. Claire and Robert have been here before: they share happy memories with their own children, Jessica and Jack. It soon becomes clear that this year is going to be different. Tom is restless and difficult. Sometimes demanding, sometimes withdrawn, he seems, disturbingly, not quite to belong to either of his parents. Oliver is distant, exasperated. As for Frances – Claire...