SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017

How far would you go to belong?

Fourteen-year-old Linda lives with her parents in an ex-commune beside a lake in the beautiful, austere backwoods of northern Minnesota. The other girls at school call Linda 'Freak', or 'Commie'. Her parents mostly leave her to her own devices, whilst the other inhabitants have grown up and moved on.

So when the perfect family - mother, father and their little boy, Paul - move into the cabin across the lake, Linda insinuates her way into their orbit. She begins to babysit Paul and feels welcome, that she finally has a place to belong.

Yet something isn't right. Drawn into secrets she doesn't understand, Linda must make a choice. But how can a girl with no real knowledge of the world understand what the consequences will be?

Read by Caitlin Thorburn (p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group Ltd

© 2017 Weidenfeld & Nicolson (Audiobook): 9781409165064

Release date

Audiobook: 23 February 2017