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