Description

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'Brilliant. With such a good ending, it had me slapping
the 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 Ewan's waiting car. Luda
and her children were not staying in the ghost house on Seannay that first
night. The window broken in the storm must first be fixed. Living on the islands
means being in constant conversation with the wind; negotiating where it will
and will not go.The Managans do not know this yet. It is a lesson they
will begin to learn a week later, watching the cliff collapse into the sea.'Luda, a
photographer, and her two teenagers arrive in the Scottish Northern Isles to
make a new life. Everywhere the past shimmers to the surface; the shifting
landscapes and wild weather dominates; the line between reality and the uncanny
seems thin here. The teenagers forge connections, making friends of neighbours,
discovering both longing and dangerous
compulsions. But their mother - fallible, obsessive, distracted - comes up hard
against suspicion. The persecution and violence that drove the island's
historic witch trials still simmers today, in isolated homes and church
buildings, and where folklore and fact intertwine.A compelling and magically immersive novel about a family on
the edge and a community ensnared by history, that gathers to an unforgettable
ending.

'Henry-Jones blends past and present, reality and magic
into a compelling story loud with warning voices for our time.' Sydney
Morning Herald

About the Author

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Eliza Henry-Jones lives on a flower farm on Wurundjeri landin the Yarra Valley of Victoria, Australia. She is the author of In theQuiet (2015), Ache (2017) and the young adult novels Pis for Pearl (2018) and Howto Grow a Family Tree (2020). Hernovels have been listed for awards including the Readings Prize for NewAustralian Fiction, QLD Literary Awards, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, IndieAwards, ABIA Awards and CBCA Awards. Eliza has received residencies at Varuna, the National Writers' House (NSW) the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers'Centre (WA), and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig in Ireland(courtesy of Varuna). Her short fiction, nonfiction and features have beenwidely published across magazines, newspapers and journals. Eliza hasqualifications in psychology; alcohol and other drugs; and grief, loss andtrauma counselling.