Wilderness

'This is the place they belong. Every sea otter, every dolphin and gannet is a part of this world that is a part of them: each belongs to the other's history. And yet still, the girls know that the sea takes what it wants without fear of retribution - they've witnessed its violence'


When Anna and David receive a phone call late one evening, their lives are upturned. Within minutes, they are travelling to the west coast of Scotland, preparing to care for two young sisters, tragically and suddenly orphaned.
It's a beautiful place, the heather is in bloom, the birds wheel above the waves, the deer graze peacefully in the distance. But the large granite house is no longer a home for the girls, and Anna knows she can never take the place of their mother. Then David invites his friend to stay, to 'ease them through' and Anna finds herself increasingly isolated, with everything she - and the girls - once knew of life discarded and overruled by a man of whom she is increasingly suspicious.


THE WILDERNESS is an acutely observed, deft and wry portrait of a marriage and a family in crisis, and what it takes to move forward and live again.