The Course Of The Heart by M. John Harrison is a cult novel about magic and lost lives.
It is a strange and compelling read, a gothic horror kitchen sink drama where people attempt to comprehend the disillusionment of their adult lives after conducting a strange ritual.
This typically english and esoteric novel centres on a group of Cambridgeshire students who enact a mysterious ritual in a search for the truth behind world. The slow motions fallout leaves their lives forever changed. One character is dogged by chronic illness and a white couple haunting the edges of their reality, another is followed by an angry monkey-like creature, while their leader continues death wish rituals into the unknown. This is more John Fowles than JK Rowling.
The climax is sad, elightening and confusing for the characters and reader alike. The brief epiphany of a woman made of flowers heralds an allegory for lost youth and hope, where magic and possibility are fleetingly glimpsed in pursuit of understanding our place in the world.
Ultimately this is a novel without obvious answers that will linger in your mind long after you have finished reading. It will make you believe in magic again.