An unflinching and beautiful debut about belonging and betrayal, family and forgiveness

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‘Told with a stark narrative voice that reflects the harsh unforgiving subject, the comparisons to Cormac McCarthy are already coming thick and fast' - GQ

‘A startling evocation of a wild place in which every man and woman struggle on in their own private Idaho' - Daily Telegraph

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Bandy Dorner, home from Vietnam, awakes with his car mired in a canal, his cabin reduced to ashes, and his pregnant wife preparing to leave town with her lover. Within moments, a cop lies bleeding on the road.

Eighteen years later, Bandy is released from prison. His parents are gone, but on the derelict family ranch, Bandy faces a different reunion. Tracy, his now teenaged son, has come to claim the father he's never known. Hot on his heels is his mum and Bandy's ex-wife. All three are damaged, hardened, haunted. But warily, desperately, they move in a slow dance around each other, trying to piece back together a family that never was; trying to discover if they belong together at all.

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‘An edgy and affecting debut from a writer already bursting with promise and achievement.' - Jim Crace