Description

‘Beautiful, incredibly painterly and full of breathtaking details. A devastating portrait of a particular place, which draws you in with its brutality and beauty’ CARYL LEWIS, author of DRIFT

‘Incredibly assured, carefully observed, full of heart. A quietly devastating read which lingers long after the final page’ JAN CARSON
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Tucked into the Welsh valleys and encircled by silver birch and pine, the village of Cwmcysgod may appear a quiet, sleepy sort of place. But beneath the surface, tensions simmer, hearts ache, and painful truths threaten to emerge.

Sixteen-year-old Catrin Bone knows only what she has been told. Now, she is beginning to question her small world, and a version of the past that seems to entrap and embitter her reclusive mother, Mary.

Mary had a sister once, a girl of unparalleled beauty. Why did she disappear from the village in a shroud of shame all those years ago – and where is she now?

Meanwhile the Clements brothers, skint and all out of hope, run rampant across the hills and lanes. And old Dai Bevel, whose frailty masks a dark history, dreams of a girl he used to know…

The sins of the past are approaching, for it takes a village: to raise a child, to bring down a woman, to hide something monstrous and to look the other way.

In this tender, sly, exquisitely wrought novella, a unique cast of characters give voice to their versions of the truth. But it is the story of Rosalind Bone, of her strength and of all that she has endured, that rises above the rest, shimmering with hope and possibility…

Publisher Review

Bold storytelling, lyrical observations and a cast that includes an octogenarian drug dealer propel an atmospheric novella full of questions about female strength. * OBSERVER * McCarthy... combines poetic lyricism with an unflinching social realism in a jagged little novel full of predatory male violence and feminine resilience. * DAILY MAIL * Beautiful, incredibly painterly and full of breathtaking details. It is simultaneously dreamlike and nightmarish, funny and heartbreaking. A devastating portrait of a particular place, which draws you in with its brutality and beauty. * Caryl Lewis, author of DRIFT * An incredibly assured debut, carefully observed, sparsely written yet full of heart. A quietly devastating read which lingers long after the final page * Jan Carson, author of THE RAPTURES * A wonderful novella, full of atmosphere and feeling * Sara Baume, author of SPILL SIMMER FALTER WITHER and A LINE MADE BY WALKING * Small Things Like These meets Under Milk Wood - this slim but devastating novel captures an entire village, an entire world, and the many ways in which a woman can be trapped. A real gem. * Ruth Gilligan, author of THE BUTCHERS * 176 pages of quiet brilliance * i-NEWS BEST BOOKS FOR JUNE PICK * An exploration of our ability to defy and transcend such definitions, and the personal costs so often incurred along the way. A powerful, unusual debut * TLS *