Chapter 1 Summary

The story begins on the stairs of the boy's home in February 1945. His mother warns him not to cross the window at the turn of the stairs, as she senses a ghost of somebody that is unhappy. The young narrator tells of the fierce superstitions that were held in his community at that time. For example, it was believed that people with green eyes were really fairies, looking for a human child to take away. At the same time there were very strong religious beliefs about the afterlife and the importance of the last rites to ensure that a dying person did not go to hell.

We learn in the first chapter that the boy is the third eldest of a family of seven and he is aged around five or six when the novel opens in 1945. One of his earliest memories is...