Murdoch Iris. The Sea, the Sea

The sea: turbulent and leaden, transparent and opaque, magician and mother. When Charles Arrowby, over sixty, a demi god of the theatre - director, playwright and actor - retires from his glittering London world in order to 'abjure magic and become a hermit', it is to the sea that he turns. He hopes at least to escape from 'the woman' - but unexpectedly meets one whom he loved long ago. His buddhist cousin, James, also arrives. he is menaced by a monster from the deep. Charles finds his 'solitude' peopled by the drama of his own fantasies and obsessions.