by Morag Joss
First published 2013
Howard and Deborah Morgan have spent thirty years building their life at Stoneyridge, a small farm tucked away in the English moors. Howard works with clay, Deborah weaves, and together they raise sheep and chickens on their modest property. Their original vision of peaceful isolation and afternoon meals outdoors has weathered into something harder. Money troubles force them to open their home as a bed and breakfast. Then Howard suffers a stroke that leaves him disabled and Deborah struggling alone. Their world contracts to the walls of their deteriorating house, brightened only by weekly emails from their son overseas. One evening, two men appear at their door seeking accommodation for the night. Their arrival triggers a sequence of revelations that dig up buried sorrows from the past. Fresh pain mingles with old wounds as acts of cruelty and kindness interweave. The truth that Stoneyridge has concealed emerges slowly, reshaping everything the Morgans believed about their lives together.
Genres: literary-fiction, domestic-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Stoneyridge, English Moors
Period: 30 Years
352 pages · Hardcover · Delacorte Press