A novel that is gripping, disturbing, mesmerizing, captivating, Kathy Hepinstall's “The House of Gentle Men” is a powerful study of the redemption of sin and suffering.
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It is a story in which young Charlotte Gravin is raped by three soldiers; she becomes a mute, and nine months later delivers a baby boy, whom she abandons after two days.
It is a story of Justin, one of the three rapists, who has come to the House of Gentle Men to find solace, relief, redemption from this terrible act. The author has created a first-novel that encompasses a wide assortment of characters, right out of Faulkner or McCullers and the story makes compelling reading as Charlotte and Justin find their lives more than merely incidental. Men come to the House to seek redemption for some demonic secrets in
their past. Through their work here, they are redeemed. Women--battered, abused, neglected--come to the House for solace and comfort. Hepinstall's work is well-paced,
allegorical that it is. It is at once shocking, yet riveting.
The review of this Book prepared by Bill Hobbs
