Twelve-year-old Day rides out of the remote family farm where he grew up, grieving the curious death of his mother and escaping his frightening father, sure of only one thing - that he will never return. Working as a stable-boy, he creates a new life as an expert groom and travels to America with a racehorse called Unusual. In the an alien landscape of Maryland, he meets Callie, a gifted young horsewoman determined to become the world’s first female jockey. As his passion for Callie takes hold, Day must confront his past and accept that the only way forward is to go back.

David Francis’s debut novel, told with spare and haunting prose, is an unforgettable evocation of grief, reinvention and making one’s way in the world, with all the hallmarks of his celebrated later works of fiction.