'Small Things Like These meets Under Milk Wood - this slim but devastating novel captures an
entire village an entire world and the many ways in which a woman can be trapped. A real
gem.' RUTH GILLIGAN author of The Butchers A wonderful novella full of atmosphere and
feeling' SARA BAUME author of A LINE MADE BY WALKING 'Beautiful incredibly painterly and full
of breathtaking details. A devastating portrait of a particular place which draws you in with
its brutality and beauty' CARYL LEWIS author of DRIFT 'Incredibly assured carefully observed
full of heart. A quietly devastating read which lingers long after the final page' JAN CARSON
author of THE RAPTURES _____________ Tucked into the Welsh valleys and encircled by silver
birch and pine the village of Cwmcysgod may appear a quiet sleepy sort of place. But beneath
the surface tensions simmer hearts ache and painful truths threaten to emerge.
Sixteen-year-old Catrin Bone knows only what she has been told. Now she is beginning to
question her small world and a version of the past that seems to entrap and embitter her
reclusive mother Mary. Mary had a sister once a girl of unparalleled beauty. Why did she
disappear from the village in a shroud of shame all those years ago - and where is she now?
Meanwhile the Clements brothers skint and all out of hope run rampant across the hills and
lanes. And old Dai Bevel whose frailty masks a dark history dreams of a girl he used to
know... The sins of the past are approaching for it takes a village: to raise a child to
bring down a woman to hide something monstrous and to look the other way. In this tender sly
exquisitely wrought novella a unique cast of characters give voice to their versions of the
truth. But it is the story of Rosalind Bone of her strength and of all that she has endured
that rises above the rest shimmering with hope and possibility...