AustLit

'1918, Belowla, south coast New South Wales. As the Great War grinds to an end, Adelaide Roberts accompanies her father to a rugged island off the south coast of New South Wales to deliver much-needed supplies. While loss and deprivation have decimated the country, Ada is determined to live a life of purpose and hope, and dreams of living independently.

'On the windswept rocky outcrop, she meets lighthouse keeper Emmett Huxley, a dark-eyed outsider haunted by his service in France, taking refuge from the damage of the war. Adelaide and Emmett are inexorably drawn together, but Adelaide discovers plans have been made for her with a decorated returned soldier, Donal Blaxland, a local landowner with a large tobacco plantation.

'When police charges are suddenly brought against the lighthouse keeper, Adelaide is forced to make a choice about her future, and discovers that Donal harbours terrible secrets of his own. She finds herself a prisoner to the trauma and suffering that war has wreaked on the returned soldier.

'As she begins to understand the depths of Donal's desperation, Adelaide knows she must leave - and between the treacherous waters of the coast and the rocky outcrops of an ancient land, Adelaide fights for her survival, determined to live and love on her own terms.

'A moving, uplifting story about love and suffering, trauma and addiction - and hope in the darkest of times.'  (Publication summary)