In the shadow of a war that rages through Europe, brothers Calum and Neil work to gather pine cones in the grounds of a Scottish estate. When Calum releases two mutilated rabbits from a snare, he comes face to face with Duror, the gamekeeper. In retaliation, in the depths of the wood, Duror lays a trap for the cone-gatherers.
Under a bright blue sky, Neil prophesises that forces of evil will encroach upon the harmony of their lives. It is a prophecy that comes true when Duror commits an act so brutal it destroys all sense of humanity in the once thriving wood.
Powerful and unforgettable, The Cone-Gatherers is a novel about the good and the bad in human nature – and of our propensity for both.
Giới thiệu về tác giả
Author of a number of landmark novels including The Cone Gatherers, The Changeling, Happy for the Child, The Thistle and the Grail and Guests of War, Jenkins is rapidly attaining recognition as one of Scotland’s greatest writers. The themes of good and evil, of innocence lost, of fraudulence, cruelty and redemption shine through his work. His novels, shot through with ambiguity, are rarely about what they seem. He published his first book, So Gaily Sings the Lark, at the age of thirty-eight, and by the time of his death in 2005, over thirty of his novels were in print.