Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner

After an incident that causes her friends more embarrassment than herself it seems, Edith Hope takes a break at the hotel de Luc in Switzerland. Her aim is to let all the fuss die down and concentrate on writing her next novel in a tranquil environment in which she can focus, where she is unknown to the guests that surround her.

She is soon befriended by the glamorous Mrs Pusey and her daughter Jennifer, who share a very close, somewhat bizarre, relationship. She becomes their regular companion and then shortly gets to know the enigmatic Mr Neville who propositions her with a life she feels compelled to take. But her ideas of love, both from personal experience and the kind of love she writes about, challenge her decision.

It's a very well written short novel, reminding me a little of Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach, where such a short period of time is analysed under the microscope. The story goes back and forth so that we can fill in the details of what brought Edith to the hotel. I found it quite hard to determine when the novel is set. The language and character descriptions tended to hark back to a later period than it actually intended - more of a feel of the 40s. Had it been a larger book I may not have persevered as it wasn't the most exciting or gripping story, but it was a reasonable short read.