At the midpoint of Christopher Hope’s new novel, narrator Charlie Croker takes a photograph that represents an idealised moment between him and three friends, one which comes to signify the turning point between happiness and despondency. It’s a powerful moment in the book, one of many hidden memories at the heart of Shooting Angels that Croker is forced to unearth, most of which he has long since buried.

Croker has tried hard to leave his past behind him. He lives quietly in a small South African town, far from the capital (the name of which he cannot even bring himself to utter), and teaches English to a classroom of students who resist it fiercely, sporting T-shirts