Eighteen-year old Darya is trying to recover her life after a brutal terrorist attack shakes her rural Russian hometown and kills her younger sister Nika. Her father wants her married to one of his car-shop employees and her mother has finally reasserted herself as the family matriarch after a long period of withdrawal, thereby displacing Darya – furthermore she blames her for Nika’s death.

But the attack has drawn foreigners to their community – reporters and aid workers who open Darya’s eyes to the possibility of a life beyond. And when an American journalist shows an interest in her sotry and in her future she cannot help but follow her dream to escape her circumscribed provincial life and to escape her grief. But can she really run away and abandon everything and everyone she knows?

This is a startlingly bold story, about grief and love and identity and, as you will be able to tell, writing it has been an intense and powerful journey for Julie.

 

Julie Mayhew原先是一位專業的記者，之後轉換跑道，成為一為女演員，經常在倫敦、愛丁堡等大城市演出，也出演BBC電視台的戲劇。之所已開始從事寫作，是為了創作出更多適合女性演出的角色。她的首作小說《Red Ink》曾入圍布蘭福博斯獎(Branford Boase Award)。和本書《The Big Lie》中的女主角一樣，作者也非常擅長滑冰。