The seahorse

for vanessa west and her mother,a holiday in india seems a much needed escape.their destination is ashagir the remote hill station where marion grew up.for vanessa the trip will be a break from her frentic but empty london life;for the newley widowed marion a journey into the reassuring certanities of the past.they find ashagiri surrounded by mountains still dominated by the view of distant snows,still dotted with church spires and facades of grand hotels-the landmark of the raj town that it once was.the ashigiri club is still open,with its moth eaten hunting trophies,oak panneled billiard room and eccentric residents.dreaming rock ,where marion played with her school friends,is still a beautiful and remote as it ever was.but time has taken the ashagiri of marions memories and transformed it.and someone else has travelled back to ashagiri forcing marion to reevaluate a long forgotten accident and to recognise that the past cannot be owned nor memory trusted.the seahorse is an absorbing beautifully written novel about family and inheritance,love and mourning and about what memory gives-and what it takes away