Land of the Living

A profound masterpiece on war, loss and survival, rendered in prose of rhythmic precision, subtlety and exceptional sensitivity, by the Orange Prize-shortlisted author of Painter of Silence

'Arresting and brutal . the finely tuned work of a writer exceptionally at ease with her craft and a testament to the power and poetry of clean and disciplined prose' Sadie Jones, Guardian

Charlie's experiences at the Battle of Kohima and the months he spent lost in the remote jungles of Assam during the Second World War are now history. Home and settled on a farm in Norfolk and newly married to Claire, he is one of the lucky survivors. Starting a family and working the land seem the best things a man can be doing.

But a chasm exists between them. Memories flood Charlie's mind; at night, on rain-slicked roads and misty mornings in the fields, the past can feel more real than the present. What should be said and what left unsaid? Is it possible to find connection and forge a new life in the wake of unfathomable horror?

A beautifully conceived, deftly controlled and delicately wrought meditation on the isolating impact of war and the inescapable reach of the past, Georgina Harding's haunting and lyrical novel questions the very nature of survival, and what it is that the living owe the dead.