'Harrow's language is simple and cutting – an elegant evocation of the ambiguities of war.' Rachel Seiffert, author of THE DARK ROOM.

A beautiful novel, written in prose of haunting clarity, about the fall-out from the secrets that our families – and our governments – keep from us. A perfect reading group title.

In 1975, thirty-year-old Darcy Rain returns home to her mother and dying father in Los Alamos, the birthplace of the atomic bomb. There, thinking about the disintegration of her family, she tries to reconstruct the story of her parents’ fragile relationship by writing a series of uncertain letters to a half-sister she has never met, the living proof of another version of her father’s life. These letters frame the larger unreliable story of love, deception and violence that threatened to destroy her family after the war.

The family story begins in 1944 when Darcy’s mother, Ida Drea flees a cruel father and manipulative mother, and falls in love with Johnny Rain, a charismatic young man of mixed Indian, Mexican, and Irish blood. But he is on his way to flight school and when he is sent to Japan, and takes part in the fire-bombing of Tokyo, Ida returns home, pregnant. With the impending loss of the family’s ranch as the government prepares to test the first atomic bomb, Ida finds herself drawn back into a cycle of violence and secrecy, and commits a terrible act to protect her brother Tommy.

As the aftermath of war and its secrets continues to ripple through the characters’ lives and the lives of their children, Darcy’s attempt to understand what is hidden leads ultimately to tenderness and release in this memorable, accessible debut. Ms available, 70,000 words.