The brilliant and profound second novel from the three-times Costa prizewinner and number one bestseller Kate Atkinson.

'Vivid, richly imaginative, hilarious and frightening by turns' Observer

Once it had been the great forest of Lythe. And here, in the beginning, lived the Fairfaxes, grandly, at Fairfax Manor.

But over the centuries the forest had been destroyed, replaced by Streets of Trees. The Fairfaxes have dwindled too; now they live in 'Arden' at the end of Hawthorne Close and are hardly a family at all.

But Isobel Fairfax, who drops into pockets of time and out again, knows about the past. She is sixteen and waiting for the return of her mother - the thin, dangerous Eliza with her scent of nicotine, Arpege and sex, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest.

The brilliant and profound second novel from the three-times Costa prizewinner and number one bestseller Kate Atkinson.

About the Author

Kate Atkinson is one of the world's foremost novelists. She won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum: Human Croquet was her second novel. Her three critically lauded and prizewinning novels set around World War II are Life After Life, A God in Ruins (both winners of the Costa Novel Award), and Transcription. She has also written five bestselling literary crime novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie, the latest of which is Big Sky.

Kate Atkinson was appointed MBE for services to literature in 2011.

Reviews
Vivid, richly imaginative, hilarious and frightening by turns * Observer *
Huge, exhilarating, loving and detailed eruption of a novel...an utterly intoxicating display of novelistic elan...big and joyous, literary and accessible...storytelling at its buoyant best * The Scotsman *
Wonderfully eloquent and forceful Kate Atkinson goes at the same pace in her second novel as she did in her first...welcome back, wild north-easter...brilliant and engrossing * Evening Standard *
Vivid and intriguing...fizzles and crackles along...a tour de force * Independent *
Part ghost story, part murder mystery, this is an exquisitely written, literary novel that reads as compellingly as any thriller * Cosmopolitan *
A stunner of a second novel...a gutsy book, wrenched from the heart and written with tremendous force, immersing you in its strange, eccentric world * Marie Claire *
The quirky imagination, subversive humour and instinct for domestic chaos that Atkinson displayed in her first novel...are rampantly evident again * Publishers Weekly *



Book Information
ISBN 9780552996198
Author Kate Atkinson
Format Paperback
Page Count 448
Imprint Black Swan
Publisher Transworld Publishers Ltd
Weight(grams) 304g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 127mm * 28mm