Islands of Mercy

In 1865, in the polite drawing rooms of Victorian Bath, Jane Adeane discovers that the heart is rarely obedient.

Islands of Mercy follows Jane Adeane, a gifted nurse and the daughter of a respected surgeon, as she confronts the limits placed on her by r male expectations. When she turns down a proposal of marriage and forms a passionate bond with another woman, Jane is torn between security and secrecy.

Across the globe, in the jungles of nineteenth-century Borneo, the man Jane rejected pursues his own fraught journey, driven by rivalry, pride and longing. Meanwhile Clorinda Morrissey, newly arrived in Bath, attempts to fashion a life of independence from the fragments of her past.

A novel set between nineteenth-century England and the colonial world, Islands of Mercy asks what it costs to follow your heart, and whether you can live with the consequences

'A hell of a read' Sunday Times

'Triumphant and beautifully told. . . one of the best novelists writing today' Sara Collins, Guardian

'Terrific' The Times

'One of our most accomplished novelists' Observer

'One of my favourite writers' Nina Stibbe