In a remote Welsh village by the sea, four friends grow up together. Plain but charismatic Del is the ringleader. Neil, shy and stuttering, and Ricky, full of rage and loneliness, are misfits at school until Del takes them under her wing. Steph is the outsider, but she too is mesmerized by Del's devil-may-care approach to life.

Mewn pentref ynysig ar lan y môr, mae pedwar ffrind yn tyfu fyny. Mae Del yn blaen ond yn garismatig ac yn arweinydd y grŵp. Mae Neil yn swil ac arno atal dweud, mae Ricky yn unig ac yn llawn tensiwn, ac mae'r ddau ohonynt yn misffits yn yr ysgol hyd nes i Del gymryd y ddau o dan ei hadenydd. Steph yw'r un sydd y tu fas i'r cylch, ond caiff hithau ei denu gan bersonoliaeth Del.

Having been impressed by Tristan Hughes’s last novel, Send My Cold Bones Home, which was longlisted for the 2007 Welsh Book of the Year, I was delighted to be asked to review his latest book. Revenant is, if anything, a more subtle and confidently accomplished work, with Hughes honing the skills and talent that were so evident in its predecessor.

Once again, Hughes sets the story on his native Anglesey and uses multiple voices to add depth and texture to his finely wrought narrative. Neil, Ricky and Steph have had no contact with each other for ten years, yet they are reluctantly and irrevocably bound together by the past – a past that has marred, and perhaps even erased, their ability to live effectively in the present. Meeting on the thirteenth anniversary of the loss of the inimitable Del, the girl who brought them together in the first place, the three revisit their childhood haunts and find themselves forced to relive and reshape memories and feelings they have sought to obliterate. Each of them is deeply disturbed by a unique aspect of the past and has to act out a cathartic process of revenge and appeasement in order to lay their individual ghosts to rest and move on in their lives.

Hughes is a fine writer with three outstanding strengths: his skill in creating a profound sense of place and of the impact place has on identity and personality; his fluid, sophisticated prose; and his uncanny ability to fathom and evoke troubled states of mind. Brought together, they make for another memorable, if sometimes unsettling, read.

Suzy Ceulan Hughes

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.