Book Review--"Shy Creatures" by Clare Chambers 5/5 stars.

Shy Creatures is a marvelous and sometimes heartbreaking yarn about a man discovered hidden away in a tumbledown old house with his elderly aunt. An argument has caused neighbors to call the authorities, and they find the heavily bearded, nearly naked, and apparently mute man in an upstairs bedroom. He and the aunt are removed to a mental hospital where we meet a young art therapist named Helen and a married doctor for whim she falls. (Yes, I know, sounds trite about the affair, but the author has a real knack for drawing it in such a way that it's interesting and enlightening.)

The book wavers between 1964 (the novel's "present") and flashbacks that go ever further into the past to tell the tale of how William (the man discovered in the old house) came to be where he was. It turns out that he is not mute, he just only talks when it suits him. His backstory is extremely entertaining and heart-tugging, and his progress at the hospital--and Helen's as well--makes for a fine story. I loved it.