Washing the Dead

In 1921 Ellen squints into the city sky above Bristol and sees death everywhere. Ellen cleans – other people’s houses, other people’s laundry, the bodies of the dead and finds the courage to face the day. As each story moves us forward a decade we begin to trace connections – a minor character in one decade’s story comes into sharp focus. In 1951 Sam has become good at ignoring the cold, but can’t ignore his married cousin over the garden wall. In 1961 a wet beach is more inviting than a pokey kitchen and another family argument, and for Tabitha, weighed down by motherhood and marriage, a chance meeting with an elusive woman resonates down the years. 1981, Becks works as a bus conductor in Cambridge, struggling to fit in, chasing shadows. Beautiful and elusive, Washing the Dead is a collection of linked stories in which aunts and step-parents, abortion, secrets, deceptions and sanity collide across a century of ordinary people who occasionally discover moments of truth.