The Shadow Year
On a hot summer day in 1980, a group of friends travel to England’s Peak District and discover an abandoned lakeside cottage. They decide to embark on an experiment to stay in the cottage for one year and live off the land. Fast-forward 30 years. Lila Bailey, a London decorator mourning the death of her infant daughter, receives a mysterious package in the mail containing the deed to the property. Told by different narrators in alternating chapters, Richell’s latest novel follows the lives of the original group of friends and the ongoing drama of their isolated communal lives while also following Lila as she throws herself into cottage renovations and discovers the healing powers of living among the beauty and simplicity of nature. Richell, whose House of Tides (2010) was shortlisted for the Australian Independent Bookseller Best Debut Fiction Award, has written an absorbing, deeply satisfying novel examining the relationships that make up our lives and what happens when the best intentions go deeply astray. Beautifully written and skillfully woven, this is a compelling tale of tragedy and forgiveness. --Carol Gladstein