First published 2021
In a northern English mining village, Robert Lowther reports for his final underground shift before the pit's permanent closure. What begins as a routine descent becomes a labyrinthine exploration of memory, violence, and generational trauma. As Robert navigates the dark tunnels, each step triggers fragmented recollections of his father's mysterious disappearance decades earlier and the community's unspoken histories of labor, loss, and suppressed rage. The mine becomes both physical landscape and psychological terrain, where personal and collective memories collide with brutal intimacy. Myers traces the intricate fault lines between individual experience and communal silence, revealing how some stories are preserved in stone and muscle long after words fail. A raw, unflinching meditation on what remains unspoken between fathers and sons.
Genres: fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: England, Northern England
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
Hardcover · Bloomsbury Circus
Content warnings: violence