SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ENCORE AWARD 2025 'Compelling and fine and rich I devoured it' TESSA
HADLEY 'Powerfully compelling' GUARDIAN 'Unbelievably good' ELIZABETH DAY 'Complex and
nuanced... the perfect definition of summer reading' LUCY CALDWELL 'Subtle complex ambitious'
THE TIMES A Guardian Book of the Year 2024 A stunning new novel of power desire and the
secrets all families carry from the acclaimed author of Nightingale Marina Kemp. When
fledgling writer Zoe arrives at the Sicilian holiday home of famed novelist Don Travers she
feels that she has made it. And yet as the week unfolds it is not Don but his children and
unknowable wife Lydia who come to intrigue Zoe most. On the fringes Don's youngest Nemony
watches as her older siblings begin to navigate the treacherous waters of the adult world. When
her adored oldest sister makes a terrible mistake the holiday ends suddenly shattering the
fragile balance of their parents' marriage and the siblings' lives. Many years later and in the
wake of loss the events of that summer continue to haunt. Nemony now a lonely new mother
herself strikes up a chance friendship with Zoe. With her support Nemony attempts to grapple
with the casual damage enacted by her father. But as their relationship deepens she is soon
forced to question the true extent of Zoe's fascination with the Travers family. Tracing their
lives through Sicily London and the old mining towns of Appalachia Nemony must uncover the
stories untold - about her implacable father her troubled mother and the siblings she might
still do anything for. 'Kemp's luminous prose and emotional sensitivity make for a novel rich
in psychological insight' OBSERVER 'Exquisitely written subtle and transporting' SUSSIE ANIE
author of To Fill a Yellow House 'Ambitious immersive' OLIVIA SUDJIC author of Sympathy
'Unflinching magnificent' KAREN POWELL author of Fifteen Wild Decembers 'A writer to watch'
FRANCIS SPUFFORD author of Light Perpetual
