Recently read with my bookgroup. Candelo is a wild and neglected house with no phone, no neighbours and hidden places. Ursula and Mitchell can escape out of sight of a mother whose involvement in moral causes makes her blind to the domestic situation that surrounds her . The novel has a broody feel as Ursula slowly reveals to the reader what happened on that fateful day in Candelo. Interestingly Blain's own personal family history provides the themes about family stresses that she writes about here and a ray of hope brightens the novels end. ( )