'Powerful... Poignant, bleak and haunting, this is a small masterpiece' Sunday Mirror

Brother and sister, Ted and Rose Howker, grew up in Mount of Zeal, a mining village blackened by coal. They know nothing of the outside world, though both of them yearn for escape. For Rose this comes in the form of love, while Ted seizes the chance of a job away from the pit. But neither can truly break free and their decisions bring with them brutal consequences...

'Gripping all the way to its unexpected end' Spectator

A searing family story from one of our most beloved writers

About the Author
SUSAN HILL has been a professional writer for over fifty years. Her books have won awards and prizes including the Whitbread, the John Llewellyn Rhys and a Somerset Maugham, and have been shortlisted for the Booker. Her novels include Strange Meeting, I'm the King of the Castle, In the Springtime of the Year and The Mist in the Mirror. She has also published autobiographical works and collections of short stories as well as the Simon Serrailler series of crime novels. The play of her ghost story The Woman in Black is one of the longest running in the history of London's West End. In 2020 she was awarded a damehood (DBE) for services to literature. She has two adult daughters and lives in North Norfolk.

Reviews
Powerful... Poignant, bleak and haunting, this is a small masterpiece * Sunday Mirror *
Compulsively readable * Irish Examiner *
Hill deploys her not inconsiderable power to weave a haunting story * Daily Mail *
Beautifully, even lovingly, told * Scotsman *
There is something Hardyesque in the tragic momentum of this story * Guardian *


Awards
Short-listed for East Anglian Book Award for Fiction 2014 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9780099539568
Author Susan Hill
Format Paperback
Page Count 144
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 100g
Dimensions(mm) 194mm * 128mm * 16mm