Description
Nestled on a windswept coastline, life in Tidetown is quiet and assured. But after a galleon is shipwrecked on its shores a plague appears from nowhere to challenge and threaten time-honoured traditions and ways of being.
‘Something is shifting in Tidetown. The children walk freely in the streets, unencumbered. The adults stay indoors, fearful of mixing. Wary of each other, in terror of something deadly in the breath and wake of their words.’
As the plague seeps through the air, creeping under doors and into bedrooms, events unravel in this town on the edge of the world. The unfinished business of the barbaric Fishcutter murder comes back to haunt the townsfolk as the mercurial twins, Perch and Carp, return.
In the wider world, rumours of wars, disease and corruption endanger the livelihood and the very existence of Tidetown. Will Mayor Bruin, abhorred for his deceit and pride, provide a vision for the future? Can the monks on the Island of Good Hope offer salvation in a time when faith is tested? Can Judge Omega keep evil at bay? And will the children of Tidetown, under the cultish control of Perch and Carp, create a new order out of the ravages of the pandemic?
Praise for Robert Power’s writing
‘An assured storyteller.’ Australian Book Review
‘Psychologically astute, original and whimsical.’ Felicity Plunkett, Canberra Times
‘Dark and beautiful.’ Claire Kennedy, Herald Sun
