Description |
322 pages ; 20 cm |
Summary |
A haunting, evocative portrait of three generations of a family, this debut novel explores the relationship between people and the landscape in which they live. It is the summer of 1945 in Norfolk, England, and when Goose comes upon a German soldier buried neck deep in the mud of a local salt marsh, she pulls him out and brings him home. Nine months later, he vanishes in a makeshift boat, leaving Goose behind with a newborn daughter, Lil. Taught to read the clouds by her mother, Lil is curious and her childhood strange. When she becomes the object of two brothers' desire, her life takes a tragic turn. Fifteen years later, it is Lil's son, Pip, who attempts to make sense of his family's intriguing history. Pip, who never utters a word, is alone and isolated in his mute world and is beguiled by the lovely flame-haired Elsie who lives nearby. Pip comes of age among the marshes like the generations before him-but will the misfortune of his family's past repeat itself through him? |
Subject |
Germans -- England -- Fiction.
|
|
Families -- Fiction.
|
|
Identity (Psychology) -- Fiction.
|
|
World War, 1939-1945 -- England -- Norfolk -- Fiction.
|
|
England -- Fiction.
|
|
Norfolk (England) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction.
|
|
Domestic fiction.
|
ISBN |
9780143114123 sc |
|
0143114123 |
|
9780141027708 |
|
0141027703 |
|