The Sandcastle

A married schoolmaster and young painter must choose between love, duty and ambition - Murdoch at her very best.

The quiet life of schoolmaster Bill Mor and his wife Nan is disturbed when a young woman, Rain Carter, arrives at the school to paint the portrait of the headmaster. Mor, hoping to enter politics, becomes aware of new desires and a different dream of life. Mor's teenage children and their mother fight discreetly and ruthlessly against the invader.

When Bill Mor falls in love with Rain Carter he discovers a new way of being.

Suddenly there is joy to be found in the world and his surroundings. To be with Rain he must abandon his prosaic life as a schoolmaster, his domineering wife Nan and his troubled teenaged children. He must draw on the powers of selfishness, hatred and anger in order to make the final break. But what love could survive all that violence?

‘One of her most haunting works... She is spectacularly enigmatic’ Philippa Gregory

‘An absolutely scintillating, slightly bizarre page-turner’ Daily Mail

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BIDISHA