First edition. 8vo. Pp. [vi], 426. Green cloth, lettered in silver foil to spine.
Signed by Author to title page.
Long-listed for the Booker Prize. Second instalment in the trilogy, which follows the fortunes of a working-class Cumbrian family during and following the Second World War. It was preceded by The Soldier's Return (1999), winner of the WH Smith Literary Award, and was concluded with Crossing the Lines (2003). "Deeply humane and acutely truthful." –Peter Kemp, Sunday Times