Beyond The Moon

In 1916, 1st Lieutenant Robert Lovett is a patient at Coldbrook Hall military hospital in Sussex, England. A gifted artist, he’s been wounded fighting in the Great War. Shell-shocked and suffering from hysterical blindness, he can no longer see his own face, let alone paint, and life seems increasingly hopeless.

A century later in 2017, medical student Louisa Casson has just lost her beloved grandmother — her only family. Heartbroken, she drowns her sorrows in alcohol on the South Downs cliffs, only to fall partway down. Doctors fear she may have attempted suicide, and Louisa finds herself involuntarily admitted to Coldbrook Hall — now a psychiatric hospital, an unfriendly and chaotic place.

Then one day, while secretly exploring the old Victorian hospital’s ruined, abandoned wing, Louisa hears a voice calling for help and stumbles across a dark, old-fashioned hospital room. Inside, lying on the floor, is a mysterious, sightless young man who tells her he was hurt at the Battle of the Somme a century ago and that his name is Lieutenant Robert Lovett…

Two people, two battles: one against the invading Germans on the battlefields of 1916 France, the other against a substandard, uncaring mental health facility in modern-day England. Two journeys, begun a century apart, are somehow destined to coincide — becoming one desperate struggle to be together.

Outlander meets Birdsong in this haunting debut timeslip novel, where a strange twist of fate connects a British soldier fighting in World War I and a young woman living in modern-day England a century later.

Endorsements

Shortlisted for the Eharmony/Orion Write Your Own Love Story Prize 2018/19