The House in Bacolet. British couple Hugh and Julia Pennington buy an old church to convert on a former cocoa plantation on a Caribbean island. When their estate agent fails to meet them at the airport, they accept a lift in a large American car by a charismatic local, Horatio.
The couple become increasingly dependent on Horatio who ends up moving into their ‘servants’ quarters’ but remains an enigma. They little suspect how their desire to become 'involved' in the life of the island will play out.
This tense psychological drama examines the delicate master-servant relationship against a Caribbean island's colonial background and a still simmering history of slavery. An intimate portrait of a marriage, the novel also explores the difficulties of human communication and how these are compounded when race, sex and culture-bound assumptions are added to the mix. It is a story of past loss, and ultimate restitution.