Has the land come to mimic us vile deeds, or have we only mimicked the land?
Daughter. Mother. Glory. Wife of The Devil O’ Th’ Moor. Hope Gleason has many names. The child of a shepherd raised in the remote moors of Northern England, Hope has always understood the satanic brutality of the land. But when an ear-splitting, unknowable sound destroys the nearby village, Hope must embark on a dangerous journey to survive through the ravaged land with a lad, newly orphaned and alone, under her wing. As they trek the wilds together to find her husband, her violent past chases her at every turn and long-buried memories begin to resurface.
A pitch-black, magnetic, and unforgettable meditation on the nature of love, evil, and the power of redemption, Land of Hope mixes history and the myths of the English moors to tell a compelling modern English fable of serial killers at the end of the world, by way of the apocalyptic hinterland of The Road, in the style of Everything Under or Elmet.
Praise
‘This is tense, uncompromisingly brutal stuff, as gruelling and hellish as Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Yet there are flashes of beauty amid the apocalyptic bleakness: the raw majesty of landscape, nature’s resilience in the face of humankind’s destructiveness, the possibility of love blooming in even the most barren of hearts, and a willingness to admit guilt, however belatedly.’
— Financial Times
‘This muscular, disquieting twist on survival stories such as The Road asks whether the end of the world is a chance for a new beginning, or whether some acts stain the soul too deeply ever to be left behind.’
— The Guardian
‘Cate Baum has exceptional talent.’
— Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground
‘Cate Baum’s writing takes you into a mysterious, murderous, sometimes frightening world and never lets go. A journey through many extraordinary emotions with one abiding feeling: hope. An extraordinary book.’
— Jonathan Myerson, Oscar-nominated writer of The Canterbury Tales and Nuremberg
