Can a tiny caravan provide the space to rebuild a life? It was believed lightning would not strike a house that held a thunderstone. And so, these fossils were placed on top of clocks, under floorboards, over stable doors...But there are some storms that thunderstones cannot prevent.' In the wake of a traumatic lockdown, Nancy Campbell buys an old caravan and drives it into a strip of neglected woodland between a canal and railway. It is the first home she has ever owned.
As summer begins, Nancy embraces the challenge of how to live well in a space in which possessions and emotions often threaten to tumble, clearing industrial junk from the soil to help wild beauty flourish. But when illness and uncertainty loom once more, it is this van anchored in the woods, and the unconventional friendships forged off-grid, that will bring her solace and hope.
An intimate journal across the space of a defining summer, “Thunderstone” is celebration of the people and places that hold us when the storms gather, an invitation to approach life with imagination and to embrace change bravely.
"'Life-affirming, soul-shaking, heart-breaking… A book that reminds us what it means to be alive.'"
Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author, Thin Places
"'A "many-splendoured book, which is at once an after-love, ever-loving letter to her ex; a real-time journal to keep herself company and emotionally intact; a worked-over piece of literary art (Campbell writes beautiful prose) and a rich newcomer to the latest and most exciting department of place writing.'"
