The Borrowed Hills
Scott Preston
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Recommended by Caleb
’Toted as a Western in the fells, The Borrowed Hills is also a ripping quick sheep-heist, set in Cumbria during the foot and mouth epidemic, 2001. Written like a hurricane, Scott Preston illuminates a dying way of life in hills as beautiful when flushed with heather as they are when soaked in blood. You've never seen the Lake District like this.’
From the publisher
A Guardian Book of the Year
Shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year
With foot and mouth disease spreading across the hills of Cumbria, emptying the valleys of sheep and filling the skies with smoke, two neighbouring shepherds lose everything and put aside their rivalry to join forces. They set their sights on a wealthy farm in the south with its flock of prize-winning animals. So begins the dark tale of Steve Elliman and William Herne.
Their sheep rustling leads to more and more difficult decisions, and Steve's only distraction is his growing fascination with William's enigmatic and independent wife, Helen. As their home comes under the sway of a lawless outsider, it is left to Steve to save himself and Helen in a savage conflict that threatens an ancient way of life. Lyrical, cinematic and steeping in folklore, Scott Preston creates an uncompromising vision of farmers lost in brutal devotion to their flocks, the aching love affairs that men and women use to sustain themselves and the painful consequences of a breathtaking heist gone bad.
The Borrowed Hills is a thrilling adventure that reimagines the American Western for the fells of northern England.