Dancing Backwards: A Novel

Violet Hetherington, recently widowed, has taken the rash step of joining a transatlantic cruise to New York to visit Edwin, an old friend and long-ago lover. As she makes the six-day crossing, she relives the traumatic events that led to losing his friendship and abandoning her career as a poet for the safety of marriage. Moving between the late sixties and the present day, Dancing Backwards is written with the lightness of touch and psychological insight that characterizes much of Salley Vickers’s widely acclaimed work. This bittersweet novel is subtle, poignant, and wonderfully entertaining.