<strong>Longlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction</strong>
<strong>Shortlisted for the 2017 Costa First Novel Award</strong>
<strong>New Faces of Fiction 2017, Observer</strong>
<strong>Observer Fiction to look out for in 2017</strong>
<strong>The Irish Times What To Look Out for in 2017 from Independent Publishers</strong>
<strong>Jen Campbell's 'Most Anticipated Books of 2017'</strong>
<strong>Jean Bookish Thoughts 'Most Anticipated Releases of 2017'</strong>
<strong>A dark social-realist fairytale, spotlighting the shadowy underside of 1920s England</strong>
Summer 1923: the modern world. Orphaned Lucy Marsh climbs into the back of an old army truck and is whisked off to the woods north of London – a land haunted by the past, where lost souls and monsters conceal themselves in the trees.
In a sunlit clearing she meets the 'funny men', a quartet of disfigured ex-soldiers named after Dorothy's companions in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Here are the loved and the damaged, dark forests and darker histories, and the ever-present risk of discovery and violent retribution. Xan Brooks' stunning debut is heartbreaking, disturbing and redemptive.
