I’m not easily damaged; I had a difficult childhood and it brought me up to be hard as nails and twice as sharp. But Then hammered me soundly and completely, and I cried for a solid twenty minutes after finishing it. Sobbed, completely and utterly, like a child, while my husband sternly resolved never to read it.

Myerson is nothing short of a literary genius, with an incomparable ability to put ideas into words and paint the realistic canvas of post-apocalyptic London against which this tale plays out. The lack of quotation marks feeds into a synaesthetic sense of greyness and silence, adding to the ephemeral quality of London as a ghost town and representing each word exchanged between characters as something between a thought and a sound.

We join a woman drifting, frightened, through a London that has almost forgotten its past a bustling metropolis. Freezing cold and largely devoid of people, it lies on the icy Thames and waits for a future it no longer believes in. She is alone, more alone than any of the others who inhabit the tall office block she now calls home, and relating to the others is difficult; her memory is poorer still than theirs and sometimes she forgets the recent past along with the more distant one.

But she is haunted by small ghosts, and as they get closer to her the past swims softly into focus and begins to overwhelm her daily life. As horror makes way for horror, it becomes clear that nothing is quite what it seems… Including her companions.

There is an intimacy in Myerson’s writing that’s precious and rare, and that brings the story closer to you and weaves the protagonist’s struggles into your life until they feel like a part of you. Her problems become yours and the tantalising snippets of revelation keep you reading until the very end.

The finale is no surprise; you know what’s going on relatively early in the book and watch it approach. However, this is clearly intentional, and the result is similar to watching the seasons change. You may not want them to, but they will go about their way regardless of your permission and you’ll be helpless to make the slightest change.

As the ending bears down, a lonely freight train howling in the night, you’ll find yourself unable to step out of the way. And when it comes it will crush you. Regardless, the use of language and Myerson’s considerable storytelling skill make this book worth the pain of reading it, and if you feel you’re up for it… She will not lead you wrong.

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