Atonement meets Weyward in this striking historical debut from new talent Laura Evans, about queer love, privilege and the intoxicating dangers of embracing the wild . . .
Suffolk, 1937. During a sweltering heatwave, preparations for a party are in full swing at Snare House. The Winthers' only daughter, Joanie, is returning from a summer abroad before starting university. Only Margaret, ward of the family and Joanie's closest friend, knows the truth: Joanie and Margaret are in love and plan to run away together.
But when Joanie's father discovers their secret, Margaret's world is turned upside down. Exiled to a tumbledown lodge in the woods with her estranged father and his colony of magpies, she finds herself becoming wild. As the heatwave refuses to break, Margaret must decide whether to give in to her new, dark impulses in a bid to get what she most desires . . . Laura Evans was born in Burnley and grew up in the Midlands. She studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at university before a career as a magazine editor, with a particular interest in travel and nature. A graduate of Curtis Brown Creative's six-month novel-writing course, she lives with her family (and the world's friendliest cockapoo, Maggie) in Norwich. An original historical debut, set in 1930s Suffolk, in which the reader is transported from a seemingly straightforward – yet beautifully rendered – story of wealth, privilege and first (queer) love, to something much more surprising.
