This Cold Country - Annabel Davis-Goff

Known for her elegant prose and her keen eye for the nuances of class, Annabel Davis-Goff adds the lush immediacy of a Merchant-Ivory film to her compelling tale of a woman and a culture forever changed by World War II.
Only three days after Daisy Creed weds Patrick Nugent, heir of an Anglo-Irish family, he leaves for the war. Having never met her husband's family, Daisy embarks for her new home, Dunmaine, in County Waterford. The family's affairs echo its estate: grand on the outside, decaying within. Left alone with Patrick's eccentric brother and silent grandmother, Daisy is determined to save Dunmaine and secure her place there. But before she can grasp the unspoken rules, she is unwillingly drawn into events that throw her determination off course.
Daisy Creed is a resilient, courageous, altogether enterprising Everywoman of her time in this novel about a way of life and the war that precipitated its transformation.