Dimensions
130 x 198 x 1mm
A boy searches for the truth about his mysterious mother and her life and death in a Derbyshire village that no longer exists. What happened at Blackmoor - the destruction of an industry, the dissolution of a community, and Beth's persecution at the hands of superstitious locals - is a haunting story of a young woman whose face didn't fit, and a past that refuses to go away ... This critically acclaimed and memorable debut novel was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2008.
Beth is an albino, half blind, and given to looking at the world out of the corner of her eye. Her neighbours in the Derbyshire town of Blackmoor have always thought she was touched, and when a series of bizarre happenings shake the very foundations of the village, they are confirmed in their opinion that Beth is an ill omen. People say that Beth eats dirt from the flowerbeds, and that smoke rises from her lawn. By the end of the year, she is dead.
A decade later her son, Vincent, treated like a bad omen by his father George, is living a bullied, awkward existence not far from the site of Blackmoor. There the bird-watching teenager stumbles towards the buried secrets of his mother's life and death in the abandoned village.
* A very original and startling debut.
* Ali Smith's The Accidental meets Wuthering Heights
