“Is this who you wanted to be? Is this the life you wanted to live?” So wonders Eleanor as she looks back over the 94 years of her life, which are bruised by a long-buried betrayal, evidence of which she makes a futile attempt to burn when she sets fire to her house’s “cabinet of secrets”. But in this gripping story, history proves harder to destroy than she had hoped.

Eleanor employs a young man, Peter, to help her sort through her bewildering array of belongings, and eradicate incriminating information that she aims to hide from her family. Her possessions hold an absorbing story of characters losing their self-possession: it was a “stab of terrible desire” that led to the betrayal at the heart of the story, which movingly shows how a few misplaced actions can change the whole course of a lifetime.

As well as vividly evoking physical objects (a silk scarf is like “the discarded skin of a snake”), this visceral novel beautifully describes the intangible memories and emotions they conjure – “did she, Eleanor, know what it was to have been truly loved?”, she wonders, recalling life during the second world war. Eleanor’s belongings most poignantly hold the story of her yearning to belong.

“Structure is very important,” says Eleanor to Peter, telling how for decades her only semblance of it was making bread twice weekly. Gerrard knows the importance of structure, too, for this powerfully paced narrative offers a carefully controlled depiction of emotional turbulence, skilfully maintaining suspense as it unfolds the painful past. Eleanor learns the power of storytelling as she shares her tale with Peter – that, to finally heal, it’s more important to reveal than conceal the skeletons in the closet.

The Twilight Hour is published by Penguin (£7.99). Click here to order it for £6.39