'A stunning tale of rural life for an era of ecological crisis' ALEXANDRA HARRIS, GUARDIAN 'A luminous, moving exploration of all that we have -- and all that we have to lose' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Wonderful ... an Under Milk Wood for the twenty-first century' AMY LIPTROT 'Extraordinary ... The best serious fiction I've read this year' FRANCIS SPUFFORD A FINANCIAL TIMES AND OBSERVER BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2026 April brings spring surging with it, giving rise, among many in the village, to a comforting illusion that all is somehow still right with the world, and that nothing will ever change. In the ancient Welm Valley, something is shifting: the river is behaving oddly, while the arrival of spring, with its familiar rhythms, is shadowed by an undercurrent of unease. A woman falls while out walking and hopes to be found before nightfall; a doctor realises, too late, that he has long underestimated his wife; across the village, people are plagued by the same vast and unsettling dream. And