Sophie Mackintosh

Calla knows how the lottery works. Everyone does. On the day of your first bleed, you report to the station to learn what kind of woman you will be. A white ticket grants you children. A blue ticket grants you freedom. You are relieved of the terrible burden of choice. And, once you've taken your ticket, there is no going back. But what if the life you're given is the wrong one?

Elodie is the baker's wife - a plain unremarkable person largely ignored by her husband and everyone else.

One day a charismatic new couple appear in town - the ambassador and his sharp-toothed wife Violet - and Elodie quickly falls under their spell. All summer long she stalks them through the shining streets.

Meanwhile beneath the tranquil surface of daily life strange things are happening. Six horses are found dead in a sun-drenched field laid out neatly on the ground like an offering. Widows see their lost husbands walking up the river in the night coming back to claim them. A teenage boy throws himself into the bonfire at the midsummer feast. A dark intoxication is spreading through the town and when Elodie finally understands her role in it, it will be too late to stop. 

Once upon a time, damaged women came here to be cured. We took them in, fed them glasses of our clean, good water, let them scream at the waves till their lips split like ripe fruit. Now no one is left but my sisters and me. King died a year ago, quite suddenly. Mother has vanished, no one knows where. And the safe compound they built around us, far away from the toxic world, has finally been breached.

Three men arrived last week, washed up by the sea, their gazes hungry and insistent. We remember now what our father taught us. 'If the men come to you, show yourself some mercy. Don't stick around and wait for them to put you out of your misery.'