Willoughby''s new landlady at Gladstone Terrace is not what he expects. The flamboyant Ruby Hoffman wears a green beret on which she''s pinned a velvet bird by its feet, explaining that she busks with her cousin, Gregor - Ruby playing accordion while Gregor dances. Ruby and Gregor, born nine years and one country apart, are bound to each other by a family weighed down with sacrifice in the Dutch resistance on one side and Nazi collusion on the other. While Ruby''s colourful persona hides a brittle fragility, Gregor''s burden of guilt is channelled into caring for others, feeding their strange group of tenants, each barely clinging to the edges of society. But when the enigmatic Leda Godwin turns up, wanting to know Gregor''s story, the delicate balance of their lives is shaken.
Peopled with intriguing and memorable characters and told with exquisite precision, The Dancer at World''s End explores the legacy of violence, whether perpetrated by those committing genocide or those
