Patricia Tyrrell has self-published two novels, both of which were shortlisted for major prizes. The Promised Land was runner-up for the Sagittarius Prize for a first novel by someone over the age of 60, and The Reckoning was a contender for the Encore Award. I am happy to declare an interest here as, along with Mark Amory, the literary editor of these pages, I was one of the Encore judges. The book didn’t win, but Tyrrell has gone on gaining admirers, including a major publishing house who have now brought her into mainstream print.
This remarkable novel lifts off from a story of archetypal depth: a stolen child, a murder, a man seeking redemption and a couple whose grief has frozen them over. It is narrated by the teenage Cate, who was abducted from a campsite in the American West when she was three.
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