Amity & Sorrow

(Paperback)

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Description

AMITY & SORROW is a story about God, sex, and farming. In the wake of a suspicious fire, Amaranth gathers her children and flees from the cult where her children were born and raised. Now she is on the run with no one but her barely-teenage daughters, Amity and Sorrow, neither of whom have ever seen the outside world, to help her. After four days of driving without sleep, Amaranth crashes the car, leaving the family stranded at a gas station, unsure of what to do next. Rescue comes in the unlikely form of a downtrodden farmer, a man who offers sanctuary when the women need it most.

AMITY & SORROW is the story of these remarkable women, their lives before the night they fled, and their heartbreaking, hopeful future. Over the course of a season Amaranth will test the limits of her faith, and her daughters will test the limits of her patience. While Amity blossoms in this new world, free from her father's forbidding rules and ecstatic worship, Sorrow will move heaven and earth trying to get back home... And, meanwhile, the outside world hasn't forgotten about the fire on the compound.

Reviews

One of the most exciting books to be published this year - Good Housekeeping

[A] delicately stitched, finely patterned and poetic novel... packed with shock and hope - New York Times

A startlingly original, intelligent and beautiful first novel that I found riveting from page one. I can only wait with great anticipation for what comes next from Peggy Riley - Michael Connelly

A literary page-turner - Reader's Digest

Once in a while a book comes along that can not only grip you but keep you thinking long after the last page. Enter Amity & Sorrow... a stunningly original contemporary classic [with] remarkable characterisation and intense plot. I urge you to read Riley's novel - Stylist

A story about God, Sex and Farming, as two girls do a runner from a cult. It's ace - Heat

A debut that will haunt and inspire - Elle

A taut debut, this will appeal to fans of Emma Donoghue's Room - Grazia

Author Bio

Peggy Riley is a writer and playwright. She recently won a Highly Commended prize in the 2011 Bridport Prize and was published in their latest anthology. Her short fiction has been broadcast on BBC Radio and published in Mslexia Magazine and as an app on Ether Books. Her plays have been commissioned and produced off-West End, regionally, and on tour. She has been a festival producer, a bookseller, and writer-in-residence at a young offender prison. Originally from LA, Peggy now lives in Kent.