By 'quite simply one of the best writers we have' (Sunday Telegraph), a profoundly moving story spanning three generations.
'It is a gem' Independent
'I loved it' Pat Barker
Reaching from late 19th-century Cumbria to the present, this elegiac novel celebrates two spirited women: Grace, a farm labourer's daughter who fatefully followed her heart, and Mary, the child she was forced to give up. Unsung heroines according to Mary's son who, as his elderly mother's mind begins to fail, lovingly recreates their lives and the vanished country of their pasts, linking three generations in a chain of enduring love, loss and courage.
Industry Reviews
In a contemporary literary landscape of middlebrow experimentalism and over-hyped, over-long soap operas, a Bragg novel will usually remind you of fiction's traditional virtues: plot, psychology, carefully observed descriptions of landscape and people, a thoughtfulness about the passage of time and the damage done by history. The book feels deeply personal; but it moves us, as the best fiction does, because of its universality. It is a rich book and a thoughtful one . . . A remarkable performance.
