Big Low Tide

On this side of the reef the orange buoys mark the lobster pots, a string of plastic baubles over their death-traps, trailing long chains down into the dark. A small island stands in the English Channel, barely changed by the tides. On its surface, the islanders go about their daily lives: everyone knows everybody else, and no move goes undetected. Having left the island and Brenda, the mother of his two children, Peter decides to return when he hears news of her sharp decline since. He finds her pregnant, living alone in his sister Elsa's house. Elsa is nowhere to be seen. Then, on a wild and stormy night, youngest son Danny goes missing too. Somewhere on this tiny island, a terrible secret lies waiting to be revealed. Candy Neubert is the author of the novel Foreign Bodies (Seren, 2009), along with the poetry pamphlets Zen Frog and Island. Born in the Channel Islands, she lives in Devon and maintains strong ties with South Africa, where she lived from 1990 to 1996. She has received numerous literary awards and prizes including the Bridport Prize, and her poetry has featured widely in magazines like The Rialto, Poetry Review, Poetry London and the TLS.