The Gravedigger

Henry Bale, a bashful middle-aged gravedigger in the English hamlet of Chalk takes center stage in Smith's impressive debut. Henry is nervous about his own demise; he lives alone, the kind of man who fades into the background while listening to talk about the dearly departed. But his solitary life receives an unexpected jolt after meeting the new schoolteacher, 27-year-old Caroline Ford. Henry finds it unbelievable that Caroline is attracted to him and so begins to dwell on their eventual separation. "Everything made sense, alone. Before Caroline, Henry had only occupied space, like a headstone marking a hole." The townspeople watch the relationship unfold, morbidly curious, and "They were on him like flies after the separation," when Henry withdraws again until he uncovers a dark festering secret in one of the local parishes and makes a choice that could twist his quiet life. Smith's well-wrought prose beautifully captures the tone of an English village and the awakening of a man whose livelihood depends on death but whose fear keeps him from living. (Oct.)