'Beautifully written' Michelle Paver 'I devoured this' Rebecca Netley 'A rare gem of gothic literature' A. M. Shine In the last terrible months of the First World War, as the fate of the Allies looks far from certain, three strangers' lives come to intersect. Esther, a volunteer nurse working at a Scottish manor house that has been requisitioned as a temporary hospital, dreams of being a poet. With her husband and beloved father both dead, she knows that if the war ever ends she must build a very different life for herself. Meanwhile, on the coast beyond her new home lies Gallondean Castle, a gloomy near-ruin that has been unhappily inherited by Jacob, one of the few men exempt from conscription . Jacob is already haunted by his own demons but as he uncovers details of his new home's past, the shadows only seem to be growing darker around him. However it is Daniel, one of the soldiers who appears to have received only a minor, yet mysterious, injury, whose life will come to connect with both Esther and Jacob in horrifying and unexpected ways.

Unsettling and evocative, deeply atmospheric and brilliantly engaging, The Unrecovered is an unforgettable historical debut inspired by a real life legend and marks the arrival of an outstanding new talent.