Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, Canada and Caribbean Region.
Spring, 1938. Teodor returns home after nearly two years spent in prison for the crime of trying to feed his children. Now, he and his family are determined not only to survive, but to build a better life for themselves.
But it is not just the unrelenting landscape that Teodor must fight against. His sister's husband has an unforgivable plan that threatens to take everything away from them.
Nearly all is lost when a brother is pitted against a sister and a mother against her child, with dramatic and heartbreaking consequences.
'A beautiful story about two families who have nothing, yet manage to strip each other of everything.' - Easy Living.
'Utterly gripping, beautifully pitched and unsentimental in execution. Brilliant.' - Marie Claire.