Tristan Hughes pieces together memories of childhoods and uncovers the secrets and betrayals of friendship with thoughtful, shocking brilliance.

In a remote Welsh village by the sea, four friends grow up together. Plain but charismatic Del is the ringleader, unstoppable, supremely confident. Neil, shy and stuttering, and Ricky, full of rage and loneliness, are misfits until Del takes them under her wing. Steph is the outsider, but she, too, is mesmerized by Del. Together they muck about in the woods, searching for treasure on the seashore, doing dares, sharing cigarettes. Then, one terrible day, the gang is broken up for good.

Ten years later, Neil, Ricky and Steph revisit their childhood haunts and relive the memories that have cast a shadow over their lives. Del is the beating heart at the centre of their stories and, at the same time, a gaping absence.

Tristan Hughes was born in Atikokan, Ontario, and brought up on the Welsh island of Ynys Mon. He has a PhD in literature from King’s College, Cambridge and has taught courses on American literature and creative writing at Cambridge, Leipzig, Bangor and Cardiff. He won the Rhys Davies Short Story Award in 2002 and wrote his first novel, The Tower (2004), while spending seven months in a body cast after breaking his back falling off the walls of a castle. Soon after he published Send My Cold Bones Home (2006) and Revenant (2008), all set on Ynys Mon and highly praised in the UK. His most recent novels Eye Lake (2011) and its follow-up, Hummingbird, are set in the northern Ontario town of Crooked River, based on Atikokan, where Hughes spent his childhood summers. Tristan Hughes is a senior lecturer and an AHRC Fellow in Creative Writing at Cardiff University who splits his time between Cardiff and Atikokan.

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