May 2008 Debut of the Month.

Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2008.

Costa Book Awards 2008 Judges' comment: "Menacing, compelling and beautifully written."

There has been a big buzz about this debut novel in the publishing industry and for good reason. It is a haunting tale about two sisters and how, when one returns to their family home after an absence of nearly fifty years, old resentments and secrets come to the surface. Tense and extraordinary this book will stay with you long after you have finished it.

Synopsis

From her lookout on the first floor, Ginny watches and waits for her adored younger sister to return to the crumbling mansion that was once their idyllic childhood home. Vivien has not stepped foot in the house since she left, forty seven years ago; Ginny, the reclusive lepidopterist, has rarely ventured outside it. The remembrance of their youth, of loss, and of old rivalries plays across Ginny’s mind. Why is Vivi coming home?

Ginny has been selling off the family furniture over the years, gradually shutting off each wing of the house and retreating into the precise routines and isolation that define her days. Only the attic remains untouched. There, collected over several generations, are walls lined with pinned and preserved Bordered Beauties and Rusty Waves, Feathered Footmen and Great Brocades, Purple Cloud, Angle Shades, the Gothic and the Stranger . . .

Reviews

About the Author

Aged 34, Poppy Adams is a documentary filmmaker with a Natural Science degree who has made films for the BBC, Channel 4 and the Discovery Channel. She has three children and lives with her husband in London. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation