A novel that is Gothic, gruesome, and genuine. It asks: What happens if you take the Catholic faith in which you have been brought up really, really, really seriously?
The two friends in this novel do. When Eleanor and Jo walk down the church aisle together to make their first communion, their lives seem set to follow an orderly pattern, a clear and sparkling path. Jo wants it all: fame, honour, riches, glory. But when she leaves the Lancashire valley where she and Eleanor grew up, those patterns fall apart. Their dreams dissolve into nightmare.
As the ties that bind them grow darker and stronger, they must make enormous sacrifices for each other along the way.
Eleanor and Jo test the truth of their childhood faith: that we suffer for those we love, and the proof of our love is our suffering.
"A superb first novel that explores the bond of friendship against the background of a Catholic childhood." -- Publishing News
The two friends in this novel do. When Eleanor and Jo walk down the church aisle together to make their first communion, their lives seem set to follow an orderly pattern, a clear and sparkling path. Jo wants it all: fame, honour, riches, glory. But when she leaves the Lancashire valley where she and Eleanor grew up, those patterns fall apart. Their dreams dissolve into nightmare.
As the ties that bind them grow darker and stronger, they must make enormous sacrifices for each other along the way.
Eleanor and Jo test the truth of their childhood faith: that we suffer for those we love, and the proof of our love is our suffering.
"A superb first novel that explores the bond of friendship against the background of a Catholic childhood." -- Publishing News