'Brilliant. With such a good ending, it had me slapping the back cover closed with utmost satisfaction and respect.Hard recommend' Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites and DevotionLuda, a photographer, and her two teenagers arrive in the Scottish Northern Isles to make a new life.Everywhere the past shimmers to the surface; the shifting landscapes and wild weather dominates; the line between reality and the uncanny seems thin here. The teenagers forge connections, making friends of neighbours, discovering both longing and dangerous compulsions.But their mother - fallible, obsessive, distracted - comes up hard against suspicion.The persecution and violence that drove the island's historic witch trials still simmers today, in isolated homes and church buildings, and where folklore and fact intertwine. A compelling and magically immersive novel about a family on the edge and a community ensnared by history, that gathers to an unforgettable ending.