Description

By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gilead, Home, Lila and Jack, a modern American masterpiece by an author whose work ‘defines universal truths about what it means to be human’ (Barack Obama)

‘A perfect novel.’ David Nicholls
‘Genius.’ Anne Enright
‘The rarest talent.’ Colm Toibin
‘A marvel.’ Barbara Kingsolver

Ruth and Lucille are orphans in the desolate lakeside town of Fingerbone: the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff. Abandoned by a succession of relatives, the sisters find themselves in the care of Sylvie, their enigmatic aunt. Over time, the sisters grow up, and apart – until they must discover what it truly means to escape.

One of the Observer’s 100 Greatest Novels of All Time

Publisher Review

"So precise, so distilled, so beautiful that one doesn't want to miss any pleasure it might yield."--"The New York Times Book Review" "Here's a first novel that sounds as if the author has been treasuring it up all her life...You can feel in the book a gathering voluptuous release of confidence, a delighted surprise at the unexpected capacities of language, a close, careful fondness for people that we thought only saints felt."--Anatole Broyard, "The New York Times" "I found myself reading slowly, than more slowly--this is not a novel to be hurried through, for every sentence is a delight."--Doris Lessing