An Eye for Dark Places

This hypnotically powerful novel uses fantasy as a common language to tell the story of a woman's liberation. Like a prophetic and realistic dream, it draws us into a world that is foreign yet surprisingly recognizable.
England in the future is ruled by the faceless Triangle. Elections and religions have disappeared. Anarchy lies at the heart of order. Birds limp, the rain is pink and acidic, the London Zoo has become the Jungle. People have nearly forgotten the Great Shortages and subsequent cataclysms.
Sephony Berg-Benson, obedient but at odds with her time, studies ancient history while tending a farming estate. She is married to Marek, a successful engineer, and her children are nearly all grown. Yet something is clearly wrong: she is plagued by a vague but persistent hunger for a life far beyond what her circumscribed, antiseptic world can provide. And she often sees hands crawling up the walls or dancing in the salad.
One September afternoon as she prepares dinner, a hole appears in her pantry floor, and an unusual man invites her to descend. With her first step, she begins a voyage of spiritual and emotional awakening that challenges everything she thought she knew before.
In the innovative style of Doris Lessing and Margaret Atwood, Marder's powerful, hard-edged writing, with its emphasis on emotional truth, brilliantly explores the dangers and rewards of a modern woman's journey.