Pearl

A haunting debut novel inspired by the medieval poem of the same name Marianne is eight years old when her mother goes missing. Left behind with her baby brother and grieving father in a ramshackle house on the edge of a small village,she clings to the fragmented memories of her mother’s love; the smell of fresh herbsthe games they playedand the songs and stories of her childhood. As time passesMarianne struggles to adjustfixated on her mother’s disappearance and the secrets she’s sure her father is keeping from her. Discovering a medieval poem called Pearl and trusting in its promise of consolationMarianne sets out to make a visual illustration of ita task that she returns to over and over but somehow never manages to complete. Tormented by an unmarked gravestone in an abandoned chapel and the tidal pull of the riverher childhood home begins to crumble as the past leads her down a path of self-destruction. But can art heal Marianne? And will her own future as a mother help her find peace?