Rough Music
By Patrick Gale
Ballantine, $25
ISBN 0345442369

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How much of our lives do we remember? Set against the beautiful background of coastal Cornwall, Patrick Gale's compassionate and lyrical novel is about the nature of memory and forgiveness.

Will Pagett receives a generous birthday gift from his sister Poppy and her husband Sandy. It is a week's stay in a Cornwall beach house. It has been 30 years since Will and his family have visited Cornwall, and it is clear that something important occurred during the earlier holiday. There is even some question about whether Poppy might have found and rented the exact house that Will's family stayed in many years before.

Alternating chapters tell the twin stories. On one hand, we learn about the 40-year-old gay man, stuck in a relationship that has neither the excitement of new love nor the warm domesticity of a marriage. We also realize that whatever happened so long ago in Cornwall completely informs the present, whether the characters choose to remember it or not.

And that is what keeps the reader turning the pages. Who is the lover? What does the story of the little boy's befriending the prisoners in his father's jail have to do with the family now? What are the secrets the characters are repressing? Are there some secrets that should simply be forgotten? Are there transgressions that can never be forgiven? Can people really forget the past or do they push their memories deep into their psyches, where the memories fester? The mystery at the heart of this beautifully written book is slowly and carefully revealed.

On one hand, this reads a bit like a British soap opera, complete with quirky characters. On another level, Gale's real story is buried deep in the subconscious of each of the characters, even the one who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The characters who initially seem the most grounded and in control have the poorest grasp of history and truth. It takes the character with dementia to put all the details together for everyone. The deep pleasure and pain that Patrick Gale reveals through the story of betrayal, innocence and blame makes this a book to read, talk about and read again.

Robin Smith teaches school in Nashville.