The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters. This story set in post-WW II England is a masterful exploration of the hazy edges of unreliable first-person narration. Faraday, a country doctor, narrates this tale of an aristocratic family driven to madness and suicide by “the little stranger” in Hundreds, their decaying Warwickshire mansion—but Waters gradually reveals …
that Faraday’s benign interest is more urgent and controlling than he admits, and the reader is left wondering exactly how far his obsession with Hundreds goes. The doctor’s usually pragmatic tone veers into archness, bitterness, and hysteria. Historical information is delivered seamlessly. Creepy and compelling.
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