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It is Autumn 2004 and in a farmhouse on the hills outside Llandudno, a family endures the agonising wait for their son to return from Iraq. His decision to join up has left them reeling, yet there are other pressing concerns to be met at home: the working of the farmland that has been theirs for generations, and what to do with their troubled younger son. John, the father, falls once more into his gambling habit, even as the farm sits on the brink of bankruptcy. And Catrin, the boys'' doting mother begins an affair with an old flame from the city, glimpsing a life entirely different from her own. As each member of the family grasps at their own tenuous lifeline, they drift further from each other - until one fateful knock at the door. Written in luminous, exquisitely calibrated prose and set against the majestic Welsh landscape, Cloudless is a masterful portrayal of the fragility and resilience of human connection. ''Dastur skillfully weaves a story about love and war, family and nation, addiction and recovery, all with intelligence, sensitivity and a huge heart. A must read'' Paul McVeigh, author of The Good Son
About the author
Rupert Dastur is a writer, editor and publisher. His writing has been shortlisted for the Bath Short Story Award and the Fish Short Story Prize, and won the Federation of Scottish Writers Award in 2018. He is the founder of TSS Publishing and director of The Cambridge Prizes for Short Fiction, and he runs writing workshops across the UK and abroad. He read English at Cambridge University and lives in London. Cloudless is his debut novel.
Report
Deeply moving ... Set on a hill farm in north Wales, the cycles of the natural world are rendered with the same power and exactitude as the human dramas of love and loss which exist alongside them. Beautiful and unflinching, Cloudless is a phenomenal debut. Anna Hope
