Shame

Melanie Finn's second novel lives up to the promise of her first. Shame pulls off the feat of being both chilling and redemptive. She explores vast themes - the solitude of bereavement, the eternal nature of maternal love, the irony of fate - with a light, deft touch.' Michela Wrong, author of It's Our Turn to Eat and Borderlines

REDEMPTION IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY - or so Pilgrim Jones hopes as she looks up at a departures board and takes the first flight.

She is running away; from her failed marriage and from the carnage she has caused in a small Swiss village.

Pilgrim alights on the edge of Africa. Over confessions and strong gin, she is lured into a world of mercenaries and philanthropists, delusional heroes and witchdoctors in polyester suits. Here, in a land where fireflies light the sky, anything - even redemption - seems possible.

But can she come to terms with her past before the past catches up with her?