Horace Winter is not taking retirement too well. After working 48 years in the same bank, he is finding it hard to let go. So hard, in fact, that the bank takes out a restraining order against him. He is socially awkward, has no friends, and his life seems to have no meaning any more. His love of butterflies and moths are not enough to battle his intense loneliness. When a neighbour discovers him collapsed at his doorstep, she invites herself into his world and teaches him that “life is full of endless possibilities”.
Horace is someone we all know. A solitary figure with a love of routine and lack of confidence. He still regrets failing his Leaving Cert English exam, almost 50 years earlier, and feels responsible for a young child inadvertently being taken into care. He sets out to rectify these incidents and his days take on new meaning. However, he is not a young man, and his health is failing. Amending past errors is not quite as easy as he thought. A humorous and endearing novel with a truly charming protagonist.
