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The Distant Hours: A Novel by Kate Morton
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The Distant Hours: A Novel (original 2010; edition 2010)

by Kate Morton (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
3,6862123,373 (3.82)1 / 204
A long-lost letter arriving at its destination fifty years after it was sent lures Edie Burchill to crumbling Milderhurst Castle, home of the three elderly Blythe sisters, where Edie's mother was sent to stay as a teenager during World War II.
Member:MHanover10
Title:The Distant Hours: A Novel
Authors:Kate Morton (Author)
Info:Atria Books (2010), Edition: Reprint, 576 pages
Collections:Your library, Currently reading, Wishlist, To read, Read but unowned, Favorites
Rating:***
Tags:None

Work Information

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton (2010)

  1. 201
    The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (library_gal, Becchanalia)
    Becchanalia: Pretty much the same plot.
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    The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams (starfishian)
  6. 10
    The Seduction of Water by Carol Goodman (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: In both The Distant Hours and The Seduction of Water a children's story drives daughters to unravel the secrets of their mothers' pasts. Atmospheric settings, storylines past and present, mysteries, and Gothic trappings propel these polished, character-centered tales.… (more)
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» See also 204 mentions

English (195)  Spanish (8)  German (4)  Dutch (2)  Swedish (1)  French (1)  All languages (211)
Showing 1-5 of 195 (next | show all)
Family Drama
  BooksInMirror | Feb 19, 2024 |
Beautifully written story sucked me right in. Gothic mystery and tragedy. Loved it. ( )
  Doodlebug34 | Jan 1, 2024 |
Normally, I love Kate Morton's books, but this one disappointed. Not sure if it was the book, or me. ( )
  cyderry | Dec 28, 2023 |
This book had all the makings of a great story. Three aging sisters reclusively living in a moldering castle in the English countryside. A story that had been written about a mysterious man rising out of the mud. A love story that is powerful and threatens to undo it all. The book is very beautifully written. The prose is, in places, sublime. I had a major problem with the ending. I didn't like it. ( )
  briandrewz | Nov 12, 2023 |
I ate this book up! ( )
  nogomu | Oct 19, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 195 (next | show all)
"There are a few genuine surprises amid the gothic denouement, but the narrative proceeds at such an excruciatingly slow pace that it is a struggle to stay awake long enough to reach it."
 
"By the time Edie unravels the sad truth within the castle, it is too late for some - no surprise in a Gothic tale - but not too late for others. The revelations involving these characters' "distant hours" make this a rich treat for fans of historical fiction."
 
Milderhurst Castle is as enchanting to the reader as it is to Edie and her mother but the cast is rarely quite as absorbing because Meredith, Juniper and Thomas are sketchily drawn.
 
En romantisk thriller og etterlengtet tredjebok fra forfatteren av Tilbake til Riverton og Den glemte hagen.
Et brev postet i 1941 når endelig sin mottaker i 1992, med store ringvirkninger for forlagsdirektøren Edie Burchill fra London.
I det forfalne Milderhurst Slott bor det aldrende tvillingparet Pesephone og Seraphina sammen med deres yngre halvsøster, Juniper. De tre eksentriske ugifte kvinnene er døtre av Raymond Blyte, forfatteren av The True History of the Mud Man, en barnebokklassiker som Edie elsker.
Edie, som senere blir invitert til å skrive et forord i et opptrykk av Raymonds mesterverk, besøker det sjarmerende slottet på jakt etter svar.
Hvorfor ble moren hennes så knust av innholdet i et brev sendt 51 år tidligere? Og hva hendte med soldaten Thomas Cavill, Junipers lenge savnede forlovede og Merediths tidligere lærer? Svaret vil overraske leserne.
 

» Add other authors (16 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Kate Mortonprimary authorall editionscalculated
Ayers, AlanCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Elisabet W. MiddelthonTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kwan, LaywanCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lee, CarolineNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Möllemann, NorbertÜbersetzersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Middelthon, Elisabet W.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Snoijink, BobTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Hush. . . Can you hear him?
The Trees can.  They are the first to know that he is coming.
Listen! The trees of the deep, dark wood, shivering and jittering their leaves like papery hulls of beaten silver; the sly wind, snaking through their tops, whispering that soon it will begin.
The trees know, for they are old and they have seen it all before.
- "The True History of the Mud Man, Chapter 1"
Dedication
For Kim Wilkins,
who encouraged me to start;
and
Davin Patterson,
who was with me to the last full stop
First words
Hush ... can you hear him?
Quotations
She was the breeze on a summer's day, the first drops of rain when the earth was parched, light from the evening star.
My fingers positively itched to drift at length along their spines, to arrive at one whose lure I could not pass, to pluck it down, to inch it open, then to close my eyes and inhale the soul-sparking scent of old and literate dust.
It was the sibling thing, I suppose. I was fascinated by the intricate tangle of love and duty and resentment that tied them together. The glances they exchanged; the complicated balance of power established over decades; the games I would never play with rules I would never fully understand. And perhaps that was key: they were such a natural group that they made me feel remarkably singular by comparison. To watch them together was to know strongly, painfully, all that I'd been missing.
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A long-lost letter arriving at its destination fifty years after it was sent lures Edie Burchill to crumbling Milderhurst Castle, home of the three elderly Blythe sisters, where Edie's mother was sent to stay as a teenager during World War II.

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Book description
Edie Burchill, an only child of respectable if dull parents, suddenly finds her life upside down when she receives a letter that should have been delivered fifty years earlier. This letter will send her on a journey into the past and the secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst. Edie and her mother have never been close, but when the long lost letter arrives with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother's emotional distance masks an old secret. Evacuated from London as a thirteen year old girl, Edie's mother is chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe, and taken to live at Millderhurst Castle with the Blythe family. Fifty years later, Edie too is drawn to Milderhurst and the eccentric Sisters Blythe. Old ladies now, the three still live together, the twins nursing Juniper, whose abandonment by her fiance in 1941 plunged her into madness. Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother's past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst Castle, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time for someone to find it...
Haiku summary
Edie discovers
Buried family secrets,
Mysteries galore.
(passion4reading)

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