In Revenant, Tristan Hughes’ latest novel, three friends come together to their island home in Whales after a ten-year hiatus. The absence of the fourth member of their childhood group is a gaping hole for all of them. Ricky, one of the three, tries to come to terms with his return home and the memories that are awakened.

“…it struck me today that my life this far is really a before and after thing, it’s got a BC and an AD…if you’ve got one of these calendar sorts of moments in your life you’ll know what I mean, and you’ll know how everything seems to be building up and down, towards and away, from that moment, like it’s the plug that charges all the electricity in your head and everything that’s near it seems bigger, brighter, clearer, more visible, even when you don’t want it to be.”

In his sad and lyrical prose, Hughes wanders back and forth in time over that moment. The story is told in the voices of the friends: Ricky, a lonely, angry young man, Neil, fearful and shy, and Steph, who was the town girl, the outsider. Ever-present is the missing Del. Hughes uses the overlapping thoughts and images of the characters to portray the childhood events that altered the course of their lives, as well as their emotions, both past and present. This story was beautifully written. ( )