The Farm at the Edge of the World : A Novel (2016)

 
 
 
This is a novel about identity and belonging - guilt and atonement - the unrealistic expectations placed on children and the pain of coming of age.
It's about small lies and dark secrets - and how the need to love and be loved endures.
But above all it's about a beautiful, desolate, complex place.
1939, and Will and Alice are evacuated to a granite farm in north Cornwall, perched on a windswept cliff.
There they meet the farmer's daughter, Maggie, and against shimmering barley fields and a sky that stretches forever, enjoy a childhood largely protected from the ravages of war.
But in the sweltering summer of 1943 something happens that will have tragic consequences.
A small lie escalates out of all proportion.
Over 70 years on Alice is determined to make amends - but has she left it too late?
2014, and Maggie's granddaughter Lucy flees to the childhood home she couldn't wait to leave thirteen years earlier, marriage over - career apparently ended thanks to one terrible mistake.
Can she rebuild herself and the family farm?
And can she help her grandmother, plagued by a secret, to find some lasting peace?