Things Bright and Beautiful

A lyrical and suspenseful debut novel from an exciting and darkly comic new voice in literary fictionMission House was not built for three people.

Especially when one of them won't stop humming. 1954, the South Pacific islands. When Beatriz Hanlon agreed to accompany her missionary husband Max to a remote island, she knew there would be challenges.

But it isn't just the heat and the damp and the dirt.

There are more insects than she could ever have imagined, and the islanders are strangely hostile. And then there are the awful noises coming from the church at night.

Yet as the months go by, Bea slowly grows accustomed to life on the island.

That is until an unexpected and interminably humming guest arrives, and the couple's claustrophobic existence is stretched to breaking point.

Events draw to a terrible climax, and Bea watches helplessly as her husband's guilt drives him into madness.

It's not long before Bea finds herself fighting for her freedom, and her life.