The farm at the edge of the world
By: Sarah Vaughan
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 310
ISBN-13: 9781444792294; 9781444792287; 9781444792300
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Grandmothers; Fiction; Evacuation of civilians; World War, 1939-1945; Secrecy; Atonement; Family farms; Children
Description: 1939, and Will and Alice are evacuated to a granite farm in north Cornwall, perched on a windswept cliff. There they meet the farmer's daughter, Maggie, and against fields of shimmering barley and a sky that stretches forever, enjoy a childhood largely protected from the ravages of war. But in the sweltering summer of 1943 something happens that will have tragic consequences. A small lie escalates. Over 70 years on Alice is determined to atone for her behaviour - but has she left it too late? 2014, and Maggie's granddaughter Lucy flees to the childhood home she couldn't wait to leave thirteen years earlier, marriage over; career apparently ended thanks to one terrible mistake. Can she rebuild herself and the family farm? And can she help her grandmother, plagued by a secret, to find some lasting peace? This is a novel about identity and belonging; guilt, regret and atonement; the unrealistic expectations placed on children and the pain of coming of age. It's about small lies and dark secrets. But above all it's about a beautiful, desolate, complex place.