Abide With Me

From the Man Booker Prize Longlisted author ofMy Name is Lucy Barton Katherine is only five-years-old. Struck dumb with grief at her mothers death, it is down to her father, the heartbroken minister Tyler Caskey, to bring his daughter out of silence she has observed in the wake of the familys tragedy. But Tyler Caskey is barely surviving himself. His cold, church-assigned home is colder still since Laurens death, and he struggles to find the right words for his sermons, struggles to be a leader to his congregation when he himself is lost. When Katherines schoolteacher calls to discuss his daughters anti-social behaviour, it sparks a chain of events that begins to tear down Tylers defences. The small-town rumour-mill has much to make of Katherines odd behaviour, and even more to say about Tylers relationship with his housekeeper, Connie Hatch. And in Tylers darkest hour, a startling discovery will test his congregations humanity - and his own will to endure the kinds of trials that sooner or later test us all. From the Orange Prize-shortlisted author of Amy & Isabelle, this is a startlingly beautiful novel about love and abandonment, faith and hypocrisy, and the peril of family secrets