Riceyman Steps: A Novel

Set in a narrow Clerkenwell neighborhood, the story follows a solitary second-hand bookseller whose stinginess and need for order shape his life; he becomes infatuated with a young widow who works nearby, and his attempts at control and self-justification collide with love, charity, and petty social pressures. Through detailed scenes of shop life, neighbors, and small domestic crises, the narrative traces rising tensions, acts of generosity and refusal, and consequences that reveal vulnerability beneath a brittle exterior. The work examines habit, embarrassment, moral compromise, and the costs of emotional suppression in ordinary urban life.