Amanda

Love can be a lifeline... or a breaking point.

In post-WWI Britain, tumult is the order of the day. After a violent incident in Galway, Marion flees to Oxford, the City of Dreaming Spires. Against a background of cobbled streets and off-beat book presses, she meets Jamie, who is returning, shell-shocked, from the frontlines. He alone understands her scars, and the sides of herself she doesn't show in public. There is something wild and anarchic about their love for one another. A lot, perhaps everything, is at stake.

Without falling out of love, the pair suddenly falls out of contact. Marion disappears to Switzerland, while Jamie's work pulls him towards Scotland. Marion continues to be afflicted by voices, "Talkers," a lingering reminder of her dark past, even as new loss threatens to consume her. In fits and starts, their worlds slowly come back together, leaving readers guessing until the final page.

In this one-of-a-kind romantic epic, H.S. Cross takes all of this--love, damage, time, conflict, uncertainty--and transforms it into singular prose with the emotional depth of Wuthering Heights. Split between Marion and Jamie's perspectives, Amanda reminds readers of the infinite varieties of human experience and provides a poignant answer to the age-old question "what's in a name?"