FICTION
In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, we can all be changed — by death, by guilt, by grief.
Such is the message of %26quot;The Night Following,%26quot; a finely wrought novel of psychological suspense set in England by Scottish native Morag Joss.
As the stories open — and there are three distinct ones — a motorist, in a moment of lethal inattention after discovering evidence of her husband Jeremy’s infidelity, knocks Ruth, a retired teacher and amateur writer, from her bicycle to her death. Upon returning home, Jeremy learns that his wife — we never learn her name — has discovered his affair. He packs up and leaves with his lover, but he’s unaware of his wife’s responsibility for Ruth’s death.
Meanwhile, Ruth’s distraught husband, Arthur, begins a decline that accelerates into, if not insanity, certainly inability to cope with everyday life. Racked by guilt, the agent of Ruth’s death begins shadowing Arthur’s home and eventually tries to help him, first by cleaning his house, later by letting him believe the aid comes from Ruth, inexplicably returned in some form from the dead. Much of the story is told in the first person by the motorist, but a good deal comes from the letters Arthur writes to Ruth.
A third story springs from the pages of Ruth’s novel. Ruth had been returning from her writers group when struck and killed, and the motorist burned the pages she found scattered at the scene. But Ruth had left the first half of the novel at home, and Arthur takes comfort in reading it — and the reader sees that Ruth was no mean writer.
Joss spins these multiple storylines into a coherent whole with patience, tenderness and a remarkable imagination. Wholly satisfying as a novel of suspense and completely true as an exploration of loss, %26quot;The Night Following%26quot; takes the reader into the gray recesses of the human spirit and comes full circle in the circle of life.
And not least of this haunting novel’s stellar qualities is Joss’ evocative prose, such as: %26quot;The quiescent, returning silence was like watching a white curtain fall back to stillness after the air has been disturbed.%26quot;
Imbued with Scottish melancholy, %26quot;The Night Following%26quot; is a lesson in atrophy and atonement, rendered with beauty and power.
Contact Jay Strafford at (804) 649-6698 or jstrafford@timesdispatch.com.
Novel,plo,prose
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