Product Description

The land running down to the River Dean has been farmed by the Meredith family for generations. Robin Meredith bought the farm from his father, just before he married his wife Caro and now he and his brother Joe work on the land. But now Caro has died, as much as a mystery to the family as she was when she arrived twenty years ago, and the whole family feels her loss acutely, none more so than her adopted daughter Judy. Into this unhappy family comes Zoe, Judy's London friend, an outsider with an independent spirit and a disturbing directness. Everyone underestimates Zoe's power as a catalyst for change as the realities behind the seeming idyll of a rural community become ever clearer..

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #227292 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From the Back Cover
‘Fine, gripping and unflinching’ The Times

The land running down to the River Dean has been farmed by the Meredith family for generations. Robin Meredith bought the farm from his father, just before he married his wife Caro, and he and his brother Joe work on the land. But now Caro has died, as much a mystery to the family as she was when she arrived from California twenty years ago, leaving Robin and the rest of the family to cope with the loss.

With Caro gone, her daughter Judy feels cut adrift, while Joe’s despair is deeper than anyone suspects. Into this unhappy family comes Zoe, Judy’s London friend, an outsider with an independent spirit and a disturbing directness. Everyone underestimates Zoe’s power as a catalyst for change as the realities behind the seeming idyll of a rural community become ever clearer.

‘A devastatingly acute picture of a harsh rural world’ Sunday Times

‘Extraordinarily powerful’ Mail on Sunday

About the Author
Joanna Trollope is the author of eagerly awaited and sparklingly readable novels often centred around the domestic nuaunces and dilemmas of life in present-day England. She has also written a number of historical novels and Britannia's Daughters, a study of women in the British Empire. Joanna Trollope was born in Gloucestershire and now lives in London. She was appointed OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to literature.

Customer Reviews

Poignant and well written
The story begins with the death of Caro, a farmer's wife and adoptive mother of one, who, being American was always an outsider in this family of farmers. This event causes a ripple effect that touches every character. I really enjoyed reading about Zoe's feistiness and freedom which contrasts with the insular, greiving family, and although the story contains much tragedy, overall it is a fascinating insight into emotional repression and release. The positive ending sends the message that life must go on. I recommend it.

Gripping; excellent portrayal of a farming family's struggle
No use talking about feelings and such when there's work to be done. That pretty much sums up how a lot of farming people think. This book is an excellent, realistic portrayal of a farming family trying to keep the business going and trying to cope with (that is, ignore) so many devastating emotions following the death of a wife and mother. The book clearly shows how a farmer's identity is tied to the farm, making it so much more than just plain old work. Anyone wanting to get a feeling of what it is like to be a farmer today should read this book.

Surprisingly discomforting
A surprisingly discomforting story of well-to-do middle-class farmers coming a cropper as their business goes to hell in a hand-basket.

Harry and Dilys Meredith are the patriarch and matriarch and their two sons, Robin and Joe are the working farmers. Robin is married to Caro, an American, and they have an adopted daughter, Judy with a job on a fashion magazine in London; Joe's wife is Lindsay and they have Hughie aged 3 and baby Rose. But all is not right in Joe's world.

Caro has died of cancer and the novel opens with her funeral. The death of his sister-in-law seems to affect Joe more than it should - they had a link through Joe's travels in America when he was younger, but on Joe's side it seems the link went deeper. Joe is also very worried about money. He has run the arable farm and Robin in adjoining acreage is a milk producer. Though their mother Dilys does the farm accounts for Joe, there are things that he doesn't put through the books.

Joanna Trollope here does a surprisingly good job of tackling some of the presiding problems of farming. The isolation, the endless hard work, the gruelling reverses of farming life - all are well-depicted. The love stuff is standard fare, with a friend of Judy's latching on to Robin as he wends his weary way towards recovery from Caro's death. The book gave me a few hours of enjoyable reading and I was impressed at how well Trollope got to grips with the mud and grit of farming life.