Description

Shortlisted for the 2002 Man Booker Prize

‘A masterwork. I doubt that I have read a book as moving in at least a decade. A homage to the redemptive power of love’ Independent

Summer, 1921. Eight-year-old Lucy Gault clings to the glens and woods above Lahardane – the home her family is being forced to abandon. She knows the Gaults are no longer welcome in Ireland and that danger threatens. Lucy, however, is headstrong and decides that somehow she must force her parents into staying. But the path she chooses ends in disaster. One chance event, unwanted and unexpected, will blight the lives of the Gaults for years to come and bind each of them in different ways to this one moment in time, to this wild stretch of coast . . .

‘Flawless. Guaranteed to keep you reading – all through the night if necessary – to find out what happens. Trevor’s best novel’ New Statesman

‘Dark, elegantly written … a book to relish’ Independent on Sunday

Publisher Review

Gravely beautiful, subtle and haunting * Guardian * Astonishing, tender. A perfect novel * Sunday Telegraph * Stark yet tender, without a single false note. There will be only a handful of novels worth reading this year (or any year) . . . this book is certainly one * Literary Review * Flawless . . . not a single word seems out of place. Guaranteed to keep you reading - all trhough the night if necessary - to find out what happens. Trevor's best novel * New Statesman * Striking, throughtful. Written with grace and finesse and charged throughout with a persuasive disquiet * Independent * Dark, elegantly written . . . a book to relish * Independent on Sunday * Unusual, beguiling, beautiful * The Times * A masterwork. I doubt that I have read a book as moving in at least a decade. A homage to the gift of redemptive love -- Fegal Keane * Independent *