Sisters of the Lost Marsh

Six daughters are a curse. If the eldest doesn’t make a good marriage, the youngest will surely end up killing her father. And with no mother to protect her, that’s how Grace finds herself being sold to a rich farmer twice her age.

But Grace has other ideas about her future and on the night the Full Moon Fair leaves the village, she disappears.

Following a trail that leads into the Lost Marsh, a place of mystery, danger and evil sprites, her sister Willa goes looking for her. But how can a 12-year-old girl succeed where the men of the area have failed? Perhaps because she knows her adversaries will always underestimate her...

The storytelling in this gothic-feeling fairy tale is enchanting, lyrical and haunting, deliciously blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. It is also a fantastic coming-of-age fable in which the oppressed and intimidated sisters take a leaf out of their grandmother’s book and become strong, independent and self-reliant; standing up to the bullies and petty jealousy in a community that seethes with superstition.

A wonderfully unpredictable book –just when you think you know where this story is going, it takes you somewhere else entirely.