Product Description

A contemporary novel set in Cardiff and Moose Creek, a remote sub-arctic community in Northern Canada. A 46 year old Welsh surgeon's life is turned upside-down by a letter from teenage twins in the Canadian Arctic, claiming to be his children. With his marriage in ruins, he goes back to this remote ice-bound town intending to solve the mystery of the children he cannot remember fathering. The truth turns out to be more extraordinary than he ever imagined and changes the course of his life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18719 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 445 pages

Nicholas Glee, Guardian
'An involving narrative, a sharply observed cast and an atmospherically evoked and unusual setting'.

Big Issue
'One of the most atmospheric and affecting novels of the year...A classy piece of contemporary fiction'

Synopsis
"Dear Dr Woodruff, I hope you don't mind me writing to you. I think I'm your daughter. My name is Miranda and I have a twin brother, Mark ...' Welsh surgeon Dafydd Woodruff's life is about to be blown apart by the unexpected news that, fourteen years before, he fathered twins. But that's impossible according to Dafydd since, despite the subsequent DNA evidence which would appear to prove the girl's case, he's never slept with the twins' mother, the icily formidable Sheila Hailey who worked in the hospital at Moose Creek, an isolated town buried deep in the Canadian wilderness where Dafydd spent a career break fifteen years ago. With his marriage in jeopardy and his medical career under threat, Dafydd takes a flight back to the remote, ice-bound community of Moose Creek to make sense of the impossible, and to confront demons he thought he'd left behind years ago ...

Customer Reviews

A real page turner
I was enthralled by this novel. It kept me turning the pages- and guessing until the very end.

A doctor is told that he has fathered twins fifteen years before in Moose Creek, a Canadian town he spent time in. Dadydd is sure that this can't be true, but DNA tests don't lie..... or do they?

The imagery created is beautiful. The characters complex and interesting. There is simply no faulting this novel and I simply couldn't put it down.

Excellent story set largely in northern Canada
When I reach the end of a novel I don't often have the thought that it would make a good film but in this case hope that some enterprising director has bought the film rights (and will make a good job of it in authentic locations).

The story of a Welsh surgeon being recalled to his own past in northern Canada while his marriage falls apart has several twists. What were his reasons for having gone there in the first place? There are descriptions of life in a sub-Arctic frontier community with a variety of 'interesting' characters. The story follows his adjustment to the unexpected and, he believes, unwarranted paternity claim against him as he returns to Canada after more than a decade away. Behind it all lies a decidedly criminal mind but the story comes at last to a life-enhancing conclusion.

The pace seems a little slow at first but increases in the latter part of the book -- it is only near the end that the full significance of the short introduction becomes clear.

Quite a page turner!
Excellent book! I couldn't put it down and although some of the language is descriptive, it is so only to enable the reader to visualise the surroundings. It's not descriptive for the sake of being 'flowery'. The title and the cover would not have encouraged me to pick it up in a bookstore neither would the synopsys on the back cover - quite a shame really as it is a fantastic story which will mostly go unread.
Very well written, cleverly put together. When you finish the book, you must go back and read the prologue again. I could almost feel the breath of the polar bear on my neck!