'A glorious love story' – Sarah Winman, author of Still Life
'Extraordinarily daring . . . a remarkable novel, an almost visionary celebration of the death-defying power of the women's love' - Sunday Times, Book of the Year
From the bestselling author of Burial Rites and The Good People, Devotion is a stunning story of girlhood and friendship, faith and suspicion, and the impossible lengths we go to for the ones we love.
1836, Prussia. Hanne is nearly fifteen and the domestic world of womanhood is quickly closing in on her. A child of nature, she yearns instead for the rush of the river, the wind dancing around her. Hanne finds little comfort in the local girls and friendship doesn't come easily, until she meets Thea and she finds in her a kindred spirit and finally, acceptance.
Hanne's family are Old Lutherans, and in her small village hushed worship is done secretly - this is a community under threat. But when they are granted safe passage to Australia, the community rejoices: at last a place they can pray without fear, a permanent home. Freedom.
It's a promise of freedom that will have devastating consequences for Hanne and Thea, but, on that long and brutal journey, their bond proves too strong for even nature to break . . .
'Exquisite . . . it's taken root in my heart' – Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies
'So beautiful and so raw . . . Impossibly good' – Evie Wyld, author of The Bass Rock