The Dig

In the long, hot summer of 1939, Britain is preparing for war, but on a riverside farm in Suffolk, there is excitement of another kind. Mrs. Pretty, the widowed owner of the farm, has had her hunch confirmed that the mounds on her land hold buried treasure. As the dig proceeds, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary find.

Preston's re-envisioning of the famed Sutton Hoo dig follows three life-changing months when locals fought outsiders, professionals thwarted amateurs, and infatuation and rivalry flourished in equal measure. As the war looms ever closer, engraved gold peeks through the soil, and each character searches for answers in the buried treasure. Their threads of love, loss, and aspiration weave a common awareness of the past as something that can never truly be left behind.