One of Britain's favourite chroniclers of life and the rural dream returns with a compelling story of a family divided by war

'Wonderful writer ... Incredible books' David Baldacci, New York Times

'She writes beautifully ... Combining, with apparent ease, emotion and admirable precision' Independent on Sunday

Bruised and brutalised by war, Michael returns to England on a troop ship, unable to face the life that awaits him at home. Impulsively he boards a train heading to the western tip of Cornwall. In doing so he changes his destiny.

More than fifty years later, Kit, a charming stranger, arrives in a coastal Norfolk village to take up his inheritance - a decommissioned lighthouse, half hidden in the shadows of the past. Meanwhile Luisa falters in the flow of her life as her children begin to fly the nest and she is left suspended, without direction. When Kit and Luisa meet, neither can escape the consequences of Michael's split-second decision made all those decades ago.