Brilliant. With such a good ending, it had me slappingthe back cover closed with utmost satisfaction and respect. Hard recommend.Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites and Devotion
Until recently, there had been four of them. Unspeaking,the three remaining Managans lugged their bags into Ewans waiting car. Ludaand her children were not staying in the ghost house on Seannay that firstnight. The window broken in the storm must first be fixed. Living on the islandsmeans being in constant conversation with the wind; negotiating where it willand will not go.
The Managans do not know this yet. It is a lesson theywill begin to learn a week later, watching the cliff collapse into the sea.
Luda, aphotographer, and her two teenagers arrive in the Scottish Northern Isles tomake a new life. Everywhere the past shimmers to the surface; the shiftinglandscapes and wild weather dominates; the line between reality and the uncannyseems thin here. The teenagers forge connections, making friends of neighbours,discovering both longing and dangerouscompulsions. But their mother fallible, obsessive, distracted comes up hardagainst suspicion. The persecution and violence that drove the islandshistoric witch trials still simmers today, in isolated homes and churchbuildings, and where folklore and fact intertwine.
A compelling and magically immersive novel about a family onthe edge and a community ensnared by history, that gathers to an unforgettableending.
Henry-Jones blends past and present, reality and magicinto a compelling story loud with warning voices for our time. SydneyMorning Herald
