who walked out on them long ago is about to walk right back in. But why has he returned, and who have the boys become in the meantime? At the helm is Matthew, cynical, poetic; Rory, forever truanting; Henry, the money-spinner; and Tommy, the pet collector who has populated the house with dysfunctional pets, including Achilles the mule and Rosy the border collie. And then there’s Clay, the quiet one, his whole young life haunted by an unspeakable act. From a grandfather, whose passion for the ancient Greeks still colours their lives, to a mother and father who fell in love over a mislaid piano, to a present day, where five sons dwell in a house with no rules, BRIDGE OF CLAY is an epic portrait of how a ramshackle family, held together by stories and by love, come to unbury one boy’s tragic secret.