Set among the servants and masters in a huge, old Irish castle during World War II, this is a masterfully-written, very modern, short novel (published 1945) with beautiful, restrained description and pitch-perfect dialogue. There’s very little interiority–you almost never learn what the characters actually think, and some of the descriptions are even hedged, as if conditional or uncertain. But for all that writerly style, it’s also a charming, funny, and surprisingly touching love story. **** 1/2