“I first saw Hundreds Hall when I was ten years old. It was the summer after the war, and the Ayreses still had most of their money then ..That must have been the last grand year for Hundreds Hall… Soon afterwards the Ayreses’ daughter died… My mother died when I was fifteen… Colonel Ayres died a few years later… With his death, Hundreds Hall withdrew even further from the world… picturing it always as it had seemed to me that day in 1919, with its handsome brick faces, and its cool marble passages, each one filled with marvellous things” – The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Sarah Waters is such a gifted writer. I knew that years ago when I read her debut novel Tipping The Velvet (1998). Since then three of her novels (Fingersmith, The Night Watch and The Little Stranger) have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. I knew that I wanted to go back to reading her and so The Little Stranger (2009) is the novel I chose

​The setting is Warwickshire, England and the year is 1948. And when The Little Stranger begins we are introduced to Dr. Faraday, who narrates the novel. Dr. Faraday has been called to the grand estate of Hundreds Hall to treat Betty, the young maid, who is not feeling well.

This is Dr. Faraday’s first visit to Hundreds Hall since 1919 when he was 10 years old. His mother worked there as a maid and she took him to visit the estate on Empire Day. Dr. Faraday never forgot the experience—the spiral staircases, the grounds, the exquisitely decorated rooms, the marvelous food being served. To a 10-year-old boy, it must have seemed like a magical kingdom.

But times are not what they were. Gone are the chandeliers, beautifully furnished rooms, and magnificent parties. Only three Ayreses still live at Hundreds Hall: Mrs. Ayres, her son Roderick, and her daughter Caroline. The family is not doing well. The money to run Hundreds Hall is no longer there. Only two servants remain and the estate is beginning to crumble.

After treating Betty, Dr. Faraday begins to treat Roderick Ayres, who has been behaving strangely. It is possibly nerves. Roderick is trying to keep Hundreds Hall financially afloat. But it’s more than that. Roderick was injured in World War II. He has scars from burns and walks with a serious limp. Your heart breaks for him. And his mother, Mrs. Ayres, is worried about Roderick, but also about her daughter Caroline, who is smart and straightforward but dresses dowdy and has no desire to find a suitor.

​And then there is Dr. Faraday. He arrives at Hundreds Hall with his medical bag, but a lot of other baggage as well. Despite his impressive accomplishments, coming from a poor background and becoming a respected doctor, Faraday has never been able to move on from the whole class structure. He expresses some resentment of the upper classes and how hard his mother worked, but mostly he’s in awe.

And though Dr Faraday hasn’t been back to Hundreds Hall for 30 years and it is now a shell of itself, he might as well be Mrs. de Winter approaching Manderley. He wants in to that world and to live permanently at Hundreds, restoring it to its original grandeur. And for that to happen he inserts himself (not even knowing why he’s doing it) into the lives of Mrs. Ayres, Roderick, and Caroline. Spoiler Alert… It doesn’t end well.

The Little Stranger is not your conventional haunted house novel because one is never really sure why bad things keep happening to the Ayers family upon the arrival of Dr Faraday. . Who is the Little Stranger? Is it Mrs Ayers’ young daughter Susan who died many years ago and has now come back as a ghost? Or is it Dr Faraday himself? Not in a malevolent way but by inserting himself into the lives of a family that was in desparate need of a doctor who could give objective help, Dr Faraday is not making things better.

The Little Stranger may not be for everyone. I felt that through much of this novel it was too slow a burn. And yet the writing, the atmosphere and how well the characters are drawn kept me turning the pages. I can see why in 2009 The Little Stranger was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.