Second nature - Alice Hoffman

When Robin, divorced mother of a teenage son, rescues a handsome if forbidding stranger from a high-security mental home and brings him to her tiny island home, the whole place is suddenly alive with rumour. For whatever Stephen may or may not be, his very presence seems to transform anyone who crosses his path. As Stephen's savage past becomes known, a number of animal corpses are found on the island, and inevitably suspicion falls on the newcomer.

'Hoffman shows how the pursuit of happiness can go wrong with a lethal grace that marks her as a novelist of real stature' Independent

'Ms Hoffman suggests that it is love in all its wondrous forms, from a parent's love for a child to the most consuming passion, that truly delineates mankind. Her abiding vision of this uniquely human power informs Second Nature with grace and beauty, making it at once her richest and wisest, as well as her boldest, novel to date' New York Times Book Review