From the Man Booker Prize longlisted author of My Name is Lucy Barton Katherine is only five-years-old Struck dumb with grief at her mother's death it is down to her father the heartbroken minister Tyler Caskey to bring his daughter out of silence she has observed in the wake of the family's tragedy But Tyler Caskey is barely surviving himself His cold church-assigned home is colder still since Lauren's death & he struggles to find the right words for his sermons; struggles to be a leader to his congregation when he himself is lost When Katherine's schoolteacher calls to discuss his daughter's anti-social behaviour it sparks a chain of events that begins to tear down Tyler's defences The small-town rumour-mill has much to make of Katherine's odd behaviour & even more to say about Tyler's relationship with his housekeeper Connie Hatch & in Tyler's darkest hour a startling discovery will test his congregation's humanity
- & his own will to endure the kinds of trials that sooner or later test us all From the Orange Prize-shortlisted author of Amy & Isabelle this is a startlingly beautiful novel about love & abandonment faith & hypocrisy; & the peril of family secrets