The Slowworm's Song

The Slowworm's Song Synopsis

? Out now: The Land in Winter, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025 ?

The Slowworm's Song: a tender tale of guilt, a search for atonement and the hard, uncertain work of loving

'Sublime'
Independent

'Masterful'
Sunday Times

'Beautiful'
Spectator

An ex-soldier and recovering alcoholic living quietly in Somerset, Stephen Rose has just begun to form a bond with Maggie, the daughter he barely knows, when he receives a summons - to an inquiry in Belfast about an incident during the Troubles, which he hoped he had long outdistanced.

Now, to testify about it could wreck his fragile relationship with Maggie. And if he loses her, he loses everything.

He decides instead to write her an account of his life - a confession, a defence, a love letter. Also a means of buying time. But as time runs out, the day comes when he must face again what happened in that distant summer of 1982.

Praise for Andrew Miller

'Andrew Miller's writing is a source of wonder and delight' Hilary Mantel

'One of our most skilful chroniclers of the human heart and mind' Sunday Times

'One of the best writers at work today' Telegraph

'A wonderful storyteller' Spectator

'One of those rare novelists who can rock up in any time and place and convincingly inhabit that particular historical moment' The Times