The Visitors“Once you start Catherine Burns's dark, disturbing, and enthralling debut novel, it's hard to stop. The Visitors is bizarrely unsettling, yet compulsively readable.” —Iain Reid, internationally bestselling author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things With the smart suspense of Emma Donoghue’s Room and the atmospheric claustrophobia of Grey Gardens, Catherine Burns’s debut novel explores the complex truths we are able to keep hidden from ourselves and the twisted realities that can lurk beneath even the most serene of surfaces. Marion Zetland lives with her domineering older brother John in a crumbling mansion on the edge of a northern seaside resort. A timid spinster in her fifties who still sleeps with teddy bears, Marion does her best to live by John’s rules, even if it means turning a blind eye to the noises she hears coming from behind the cellar door...and turning a blind eye to the women’s laundry in the hamper that isn’t hers. For years, she’s buried the signs of John’s devastating secret into the deep recesses of her mind—until the day John is crippled by a heart attack, and Marion becomes the only one whose shoulders are fit to bear his secret. Forced to go down to the cellar and face what her brother has kept hidden, Marion discovers more about herself than she ever thought possible. As the truth is slowly unraveled, we finally begin to understand: maybe John isn’t the only one with a dark side.... |
Contents
Section 1 | 1 |
Section 2 | 13 |
Section 3 | 34 |
Section 4 | 41 |
Section 5 | 47 |
Section 6 | 58 |
Section 7 | 60 |
Section 8 | 74 |
Section 14 | 116 |
Section 15 | 125 |
Section 16 | 128 |
Section 17 | 131 |
Section 18 | 135 |
Section 19 | 155 |
Section 20 | 167 |
Section 21 | 202 |
Section 9 | 80 |
Section 10 | 91 |
Section 11 | 96 |
Section 12 | 98 |
Section 13 | 106 |
Section 22 | 226 |
Section 23 | 248 |
Section 24 | 274 |
Section 25 | 291 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adrian asked Avro Lancaster baby bedroom began beneath brother called can’t cellar child couldn’t course Dad’s dark don’t want door dressed eyes face feel fingers flat floor front garden girl girl’s glass Grange Road gray Greg hadn’t hair hand happened head heard imagined inside John John’s Judith kitchen knew leave Little Chef living look Lydia Manatee Marion felt Marion thought McDonald’s Mercedes car Morrison Mother mouth Neil never night Northport Perhaps picked Prague uprising pulled realized Royal Crown Derby Sally scream seemed sitting skype smell smile sofa someone Sonya sorry staring stay stop sure sweet teddy bear tell things toilet told took toys trying Violetta voice waiting walk wasn’t watch What’s window woman won’t wondered worry young Zetland