Jim Crace’s lyrical historical fiction evokes the tragedy of a land pillaged and communities scattered, as England’s fields are irrevocably enclosed. 

As late summer steals in and the final pearls of barley are gleaned, a village comes under threat. Three outsiders arrive on the woodland borders and put up a make-shift camp. That same night, the local manor house is set on fire. Over the course of seven days, Walter Thirsk sees his hamlet unmade: the harvest blackened by smoke and fear, the new arrivals cruelly punished, and his neighbours held on suspicion of witchcraft. But something even darker is at the heart of his story.

Shortlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2013
Published by
Picador
Publication date
Jim Crace

Jim Crace

About the Author

Jim Crace is the prize-winning author of a dozen books, including Continent, winner of the 1986 Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize.
More about Jim Crace

Other nominated books by Jim Crace

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