West

SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE

When Cy Bellman, American settler and widowed father of ten-year-old Bess, reads in the newspaper that huge ancient bones have been discovered in a Kentucky swamp, he leaves his small Pennsylvania farm and daughter to find out if the rumours are true: that the giant monsters are still alive, and roam the uncharted wilderness beyond the Mississippi River.

West is the extraordinary story of a quest for a myth, of Bellman's journey into the unknown and of Bess, waiting at home for her father to return, facing monsters of her own. It is an eerie and timeless epic-in-miniature.

'One of the best books I've read this year... It's a book you can read in a day and that will resonate all year long in your head' Sunday Times

'Carys Davies is a deft, audacious visionary... Twisting the heart as few others can...' Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife