Cloudless

A powerful debut novel charting the faultlines that open in a farming family in North Wales as they wait for their son to return from the Iraq War

It is autumn 2004 and in a farmhouse on the hills outside Llandudno, a family endures the agonizing wait for their son to return from Iraq. His decision to join up has left them reeling, yet there are other pressing concerns to be met at home- the working of the farmland that has been theirs for generations and what to do with their troubled younger son.

Catrin's childhood sweetheart comes back to their small town, giving the boys' doting mother a glimpse into the life she could have had. And John, their father, falls once more into his gambling habit, even as the farm sits on the brink of bankruptcy.

As each member of the family grasps at their own tenuous lifeline, they drift further from one another - until, on a cold winter evening, there is a fateful knock at the door.

Written in luminous, exquisitely calibrated prose, Cloudless is a masterful portrayal of the fragility and resilience of human connection.