First published 2023
A young woman travels to the remote northern country where her ancestors lived. She comes to keep house for her brother after his wife leaves him. Strange events begin soon after she arrives. Cattle fall into collective hysteria. A pregnant ewe dies with her unborn lamb. A local dog develops a phantom pregnancy. Potato crops suffer from blight. The townspeople direct their suspicion of outsiders toward her with particular intensity. She feels mounting hostility from the community. The threat gathers just beyond her brother's garden gate. As rumors spread through the town, she fears what might happen if the growing resentment takes a more concrete form. She worries about what people might do, what she herself might become capable of doing. The woman must navigate the dangerous space between her role as caretaker and the community's increasing animosity toward her presence in their ancestral land.
Genres: fiction, drama, suspense, mystery, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, outsider-perspective, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Northern Country
208 pages · Hardcover
Content warnings: anxiety, death, mental-illness