This had so much potential, what with looking at the aftermath of the war in Germany and conditions in post-war Britain as well as the hopeful coming of a new dawn in 1989. David Evered sadly squanders much of what his story could be by not moving his characters through situations convincingly enough - why does a father act the way he does for so long a period of time, why do people never actually have an argument that feels potent in this whole story, what's with the undercooked relationships? There's too many flaws in the novel's actual writing, reams of it being straight dialogue all too often, and too much of it is left unresolved (unlike a film, where inference is guided by the visuals, the written word has no such exits, which makes the details essential) to land properly.