Hachette India

Broken Ghosts

J D Oswald

Spring, 1985. Twelve year old Phoebe MacDonald's world is falling apart.

She has just buried her parents, a fire at their family home claiming both in a freak accident. Now she must leave Scotland, the only place she has ever known, and go to live with her uncle Louis and aunt Maude in their home in the Welsh woods.

As spring turns to summer, Phoebe falls slowly into the rhythm of life with her eccentric guardians in their curious home. But there is no one her age in the nearby village, and she is lonely until she meets a strange girl, Gwyneth, who wanders the surrounding forest barefoot and alone.

Outsiders both, the two girls form a strong bond, though nobody else seems to believe that Gwyneth is real. Phoebe knows better, and soon with her new friend's help, she begins to see the woods for what they truly are - a place of magic and wonder, where the line between life and death is blurred. Where spirits roam and secrets fester.

Something happened here, a lifetime ago. A wrong that yearns to be put right. The answer is within Phoebe's grasp, but will revealing it put her in grave danger?

For the woods hold a dark truth, and some will do anything to keep it in the shadows.

J D Oswald

Twelve year old Phoebe's world is falling apart. It's the summer of 1985 and she has just buried her parents, a fire at their family home claiming both in a freak accident. Her life is uprooted in an instant, and she takes little solace in the fact that her uncle Louis and aunt Maude have generously offered to take her in at their home in the Welsh woods.

Under the summer sun, though, Phoebe falls into the rhythm of life with her eccentric guardians in their curious idyllic home, the hum of her aunt Maude's beehives filling the air. While exploring the surrounding woods, she strikes up a friendship with a strange girl, Gwyneth, but when she mentions this to her aunt she tells Phoebe that there are no children by that name in the village. Over the course of the summer the two girls strike up a strong bond, though nobody else seems to believe that Gwyneth exists.

Soon, Phoebe begins to see the woods for what they truly are - a strange place where the line between life and death is blurred, where spirits roam and secrets fester. But has she learned this truth too late to escape it?