HELEN HUMPHREYS is an award-winning Canadian novelist and poet. She was born in London, England, and now lives in Kingston, Ontario. Humphreys’ first novel, Leaving Earth, was a New York Times Notable Book in 1998 and won the City of Toronto Book Award. In 2009, Humphreys was awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize for literary excellence. Her novel, The Reinvention of Love, and her memoir of her brother, True Story, are also published by Serpent’s Tail.

Praise for The Evening Chorus

“A poised, lyrical novel about the griefs of war, written with poetic intensity of observation” Helen Dunmore

“The Evening Chorus serenades people brutally marked by war yet enduring to live—and relish—the tiny pleasures of another day. With her trademark prose—exquisitely limpid—Humphreys convinces us of the birdlike strength of the powerless” Emma Donoghue

“In The Evening Chorus the interventions of war, and the resulting human tragedies, play out against a natural world at once remote, alien and ultimately redemptive. The novel has a crystalline quality about it—it’s clear and complex and self-contained. It sparkles” Jo Baker, author of Longbourn

“If there’s a writer of English prose with a more profound connection to the natural world and to the subtleties of human love and sorrow than Helen Humphreys, I don’t know who it is. The Evening Chorus is rich with her particular gift for symphonic cadences and beautiful imagery that moves a story forward with the momentum of a big train gathering speed. This riveting novel is a song. Listen” Richard Bausch, author of The Last Good Time

Praise for The Reinvention of Love

“Exquisite prose” Emma Donoghue

“Humphreys’ pacing and story-telling are well-honed” Financial Times

“Haunting, moving and stylish” Times Literary Supplement

“This tender, life affirming novel made me contemplate love in a whole new way” Amanda Smyth

“Extraordinary and fascinating” Independent

Praise for True Story

“A lovely, loving tribute” Eden Carter Wood, Diva

THE EVENING CHORUS

ALSO BY HELEN HUMPHREYS

FICTION
Leaving Earth
Afterimage
The Lost Garden
Wild Dogs
Coventry
The Reinvention of Love

NON-FICTION
The Frozen Thames
Nocturne

THE EVENING CHORUS

A Novel

HELEN HUMPHREYS

 

A complete catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library on request

The right of Helen Humphreys to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Copyright © 2015 Helen Humphreys

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First published in the UK in 2015 by Serpent’s Tail,
an imprint of Profile Books Ltd
3 Holford Yard
Bevin Way
London WC1X 9HD
www.serpentstail.com

eISBN 978 1 78283 087 0

For Phyllis Bruce

The dark swallows will return and again hang their nests on your balcony and strike your window with their wings. But those that slowed their flight to see your beauty, and those that learnt your name and mine, those won’t return.
—GUSTAVO ADOLFO BÉCQUER

1940