Burning Secret – Stefan Zweig « A Rat in the Book Pile

A study of a boy and his mother, and a predatory stranger, Burning Secret is set largely in a hotel, with few changes of scene, and a chorus of hotel staff and guests. It has the feel of an intense and claustrophobic play. ... She was at a crucial age when a woman begins to regret having stayed faithful to a husband she never really loved, when the glowing sunset colours of her beauty offer her one last, urgent choice between maternal and feminine love. ...