"Farmers need each other." She doesn't make friends. He is a sort of father figure, a decent male where otherwise there are none. To her chagrin, Jake has to call upon Farmer Don for help more than once. Is it a yellow-eyed beast, or someone out to track her down? Is it just a fox? When something clatters through the house at night, it could be the ever-present wind and weather, or something more like a poltergeist: a manifestation of all her traumatised and anxious energy.įor the outsider is not the "beast" but Jake herself, who, despite her competence, lives in fear and isolation at the edge of a community. She's in no mood to put up with it: her cottage contains a gun, but no fresh bread, axes but no homely fire. The problem being that something, or someone, is killing Jake's sheep. And "kids", who may or may not be causing the problem. The island is big enough to have a friendly farmer called Don, a cafe (closed in winter), a pub and a policeman. She knows about sheep and keeps a small flock on a patch of land she has acquired on a fictional English island. It is due to all the sheep-shearing, and her habit of doing press-ups when scared or confused. I n the second novel from Evie Wyld, one of this year's Granta Best Young British Novelists, Jake is a woman – a "strong woman", in the sense of being muscular, especially in the arms.
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