The Dower House

Book excerpt: Widely praised for her rich and elegant prose, Annabel Davis-Goff delivers the story of Molly Hassard, an Anglo-Irish orphan coming of age in a formerly privileged society. As the Protestant-Irish emerge from the postwar years, the refuse to face the inevitable: They have beautiful old houses, but can scarcely afford to heat them; eat meals on exquisitely set tables, while the roof leaks; and talk very seriously about the importance of making suitable marriages. When Molly flees the genteel poverty of Ireland for London of the 1960s, she must balance the allure of the new against the romance of a world that no longer exists.