An ancient narrative shimmers through Evgenia Citkowitz’s intricately constructed debut novel, which tells the thrilling story of a modern British family haunted by ghosts of its own making. Written in cool and crystalline prose, The Shades unspools in a rational and realistic world in which all is not as it seems ... Citkowitz’s narrative flows seamlessly from past to present, folding time into pleats, shaking them gracefully loose ... a twist at the end, too moving and shrewd to reveal, may require a larger suspension of disbelief ... There are only a few misfires ... The novel’s ending clicks elegantly in sync with the beginning and holds a koan. If a living shade is shocked joyously awake and then, like poor Eurydice, is denied a second chance, does it matter that the shade awoke?

For the Hall family, the country house called Hamdean was supposed to be a retreat, a suite of well-appointed rooms where they could escape their busy London lives ... However, shortly after thier move, Catherine is questioned by local authorities about the body of a young woman who has either fallen or jumped to her death from the roof of Hamdean ... The Shades, follows the Halls and their teenage son, Rowan, as they try to put their lives back together after a sudden and shocking loss ... The Shades functions both as a thriller and a deep psychological examination of the life of a broken family. It's a slim novel, and Citkowitz doesn't waste a word; it's a book that's both intricately plotted and perfectly paced. The circumstances of the family's growing estrangement from one another are revealed piecemeal ... It's an absorbing book by an author who knows how to create organic suspense without ever overplaying her hand

When 16-year-old Rachel texts her father asking permission to stay overnight with a friend, he responds with his most common refrain, 'Ask your mother.' That night Rachel dies in a car crash, and 'ask your mother' takes on far greater significance than simple permission for a sleepover ... As in any good gothic tale, after Rachel’s death, Michael and Catherine, along with their surviving son, Rowan, must either move forward or go mad. The novel revolves around their attempts to adapt to their new lives as a trio instead of a quartet ... As in any good gothic tale, after Rachel’s death, Michael and Catherine, along with their surviving son, Rowan, must either move forward or go mad. The novel revolves around their attempts to adapt to their new lives as a trio instead of a quartet ... The ending of the novel is murky and those who require a neat final moment may be disappointed. It does, however, come full circle and revisit, from a new perspective, the awful event that Catherine witnesses. It’s then left to each reader to determine the answer to the question of the mysterious young woman. Readers may interpret the ending differently based on personal experiences, bringing them into the same situation the characters find themselves: How do you understand the world now?

Catherine has withdrawn to the country, to the apartment in a subdivided manor where she and Michael had hoped to retire. She lets the mail pile up, doesn't answer the phone and neglects her previously successful London art gallery. Meanwhile, Michael continues to work and live in the city, where he fails to find comfort in architecture--his passion--and tries to reconcile himself to his troubled marriage: 'their lives ran parallel but never together or intersecting.' ... The estate where Catherine has retreated is a focal point--this historic house whose design elements enchant her husband, but whose empty rooms, with both children gone, haunt her. When a young woman shows up at the door saying she used to live there, Catherine grasps at her like a drowning woman. In this potential for new friendship, she clearly sees a lifeline. But this visitor, whom Catherine calls simply 'the girl', may not be what she seems ... The meticulous portrayal of characters, the flaws and struggles in their relationships and a gloomy, atmospheric tone are the greatest accomplishments of The Shades.

A couple begins to unravel after the sudden death of their 16-year-old daughter in Citkowitz’s haunting portrait of unsparing grief. In the year since Rachel was killed in a car accident alongside her secret boyfriend, her parents have retreated into separate worlds ... Catherine has taken up residence at their aged country house in Kent...Michael remains at the family home in London...meanwhile, their teenage son, Rowan, sweet and stoic, has fled to boarding school, having made the arrangements for his escape himself ... And so Catherine is alone when a mysterious young woman arrives at the house, claiming to have lived there as a child ... but Catherine learns, may not be who she seems ... A thoroughly modern novel with a Gothic feel.

Citkowitz’s ethereal latest dissects the messy tangle of past and present in the aftermath of a young woman’s death ... Catherine, remains in the family’s second home in Kent, disengaged from life and her work as a successful art gallery owner until the arrival of a mysterious young woman who claims to have lived in the house as a child ... Citkowitz meanders through her scant plot with ample atmospheric detours through the family’s past. Her depiction of the delicate, complicated attachment of siblings is particularly touching. The prose sparkles as she unpacks emotional wounds, but the threads of story remain too hazy and incomplete to be fully satisfying. This compact family drama captures the thinly masked desperation of grief with an eerie undercurrent.

This is not single-strand auto-fiction, a thin mask for the author’s experience. It is an ambitious, structurally complex, allusive book. This is a first novel, but it doesn’t read like one. No offense to first-time novelists, but this is a layered, structurally ambitious, emotionally complex work told from shifting perspectives.