In a silent valley stands an isolated stone farmhouse, the Mas Lunel. Its owner is Aramon Lunel, an alcoholic so haunted by his violent past that he's become incapable of all meaningful action, letting his hunting dogs starve and his land go to ruin. Meanwhile, his sister, Audrun, alone in her modern bungalow within sight of the Mas Lunel, dreams of exacting retribution for the unspoken betrayals that have blighted her life.

Into this closed Cévenol world comes Anthony Verey, a wealthy but disillusioned antiques dealer from London. Now in his sixties, Anthony hopes to remake his life in France, and he begins looking at properties in the region. From the moment he arrives at the Mas Lunel, a frightening and unstoppable series of consequences is set in motion.

Two worlds and two cultures collide. Ancient boundaries are crossed, taboos are broken, a violent crime is committed. And all the time the Cévennes hills remain, as cruel and seductive as ever, unforgettably captured in this powerful and unsettling novel, which reveals yet another dimension to Rose Tremain's extraordinary imagination.

About the Author

Rose Tremain's most recent book, The Road Home, won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction in 2008. Her novels have been published in 27 countries and have won many prizes, including the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; Restoration was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was made into a film (1995) and a stage play (2009). The Colour and Music & Silence, are currently in development as films, and the bestselling The Road Home is being adapted for television. Rose Tremain lives in Norfolk and North London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.