Little Wild : A Novel

Weyward meets Atonement in a shimmering debut novel of first love, betrayal, and revenge set on a crumbling British estate.

Suffolk, 1937. As the English countryside swelters in a historic heat wave, preparations for a party at Snare House are in full swing. The Winthers' only daughter, Joanie, is returning from a summer on the Continent, a flying visit before she leaves for university at Oxford. Only Margaret, longtime ward of the family and Joanie's closest friend, knows the truth: Joanie won't be going to Oxford. Instead, the two will be leaving the stultifying society they know to live together in London, as lovers.

Then the pair is discovered, and everything goes wrong. Banished to a cabin in the nearby woods, Margaret is alone with her estranged father. As summer curdles into autumn and magpies throng the forest, Margaret begins to lose herself. Her dreams turn dark and terrifying, and she wakes from them with dirt on the soles of her feet and scratches on her back. Everything suggests that a perverse power is awakening within her-perhaps the very one that led to her mother's ostracism and eventual death. If she can harness it, Margaret may be able to secure an approximation of the love she's always crave-but at what cost?

Little Wild is at once a feminist fairy tale, a haunting meditation on the dangers of desire, and a gripping debut from a talented new voice.