Black Dirt

A glorious yet haunting novel about the guilty silences that bind family members together - and sometimes keep them apart.

With characters as diverse Christ, the red-breasted robin and kings Arthur and Alfred, 'Black Dirt' is the story of Frank - and the stories he tells George and Margaret, his adult children. Frank, lying ill in bed, finds his dying dreams haunted by figures from his childhood: his parents, and his older sister Iris, whose existence - and terrible crime - he has spent long years struggling to forget. Margaret gathers together the random fragments of his recollections and tries to piece together the past - while George, who has never quite grown-up, struggles to remember even recent events.

Revealing the dark and sinister shadows that can shape a child's imagination, 'Black Dirt' is a haunting tale of a father and his family, told, like the layering of the earth, in different tones and textures.