When Laura reluctantly returns to her small hometown following the death of her estranged mother, she finds a house of secrets waiting for her. As she sorts through Angela’s belongings and begins piecing her past together, she becomes slowly aware of someone watching her through the trees. Kristina Olsson’s latest novel is about broken worlds – characters who have sectioned-off a part of themselves and kept it hidden, secreted away from others. Angela’s death brings together the lives of three very closed women who overcome their private fears with the unexpected help of an otherworldly young man.

There is a contemplative stillness to Olsson’s prose that makes for meditative reading. Themes and motifs gently echo back and forward through the text like lullabies. Characters stop to pick up words and turn them over, like shells found on a beach, and through the closely-observed rhythm of their lives, Olsson finds intimacy in their small, simple gestures – making toast, sharing tea or sitting with someone while they paint. This is a touching novel about loss, the isolation of grief and the power of silence.