Undressing Stone

Introverted and emotionally aloof, Sian can’t remember what her ex-husband had been talking about, but not wanting to do as he said, she did exactly what he’d cautioned against instead. From Cardiff to Saint Vay — a four-house hamlet tucked away in a forgotten corner of ancient France — Sian gives up her stable home and job in Wales to begin a new life in a borrowed cottage, because the internet told her to. Undressing Stone is a mysterious tale flirting with the gothic as it interweaves Sian’s conversations with her psychiatrist with her newly reclusive life in France. There she meets Clotilde — a strange and enigmatic sculptor who likes to work in the nude. And Sian takes with her a secret she has told no-one — not even her psychiatrist. Will her encounters with Clotilde encourage her to admit a truth she has avoided for years? And what are the consequences for Sian if she does? In a narrative that moves between caustic observation and the richly sensual, this is a novel that challenges many of our assumptions about modern life and celebrates the unconventional. A beautifully paced, told with literary skill, but always compelling novel from Hazel Manuel, author of Kanyakumari and The Geranium Woman.