MERCURY FALLING

With his keen eye and trademark candour, Robert Edric takes his readers to the most desolate of places, to explore what a man is capable of doing when he has nothing left to lose.

The Fens, 1954.

It has been another tough winter. Temperatures have plummeted and the ground is heavy with water. The Fenlands are alive with blackmarketeers, vagabonds and chancers, all trying to make their way.

The shadow of the war still hangs over these lands. Many people have lost everything. Others just want the chance to begin again. For Jimmy Devlin, both are true.

Forced from his home by bailiffs, Devlin must make a fresh start. He has nothing to his name. His only option is digging the drainage ditches the Fens so urgently need. But desperate people have a knack of finding trouble and he is no exception. It doesn't take long before he's in a downward spiral, caught in the wrong business with the wrong people and on the wrong side of the law.

With his keen eye and trademark candour, Robert Edric takes his readers to the most desolate of places, to explore what a man is capable of doing when he has nothing left to lose.

Robert Edric was born in 1956. His novels include Winter Garden (James Tait Black Prize winner 1986), A New Ice Age (runner-up for the Guardian Fiction Prize 1986), The Book of the Heathen (winner of the WH Smith LIterary Award 2000), Peacetime (longlisted for the Booker Prize 2002), Gathering the Water (longlisted for the Booker Prize 2006) and In Zodiac Light (shortlisted for the Dublin Impac Prize 2010). His most recent novel is The Monster's Lament. He lives in Yorkshire.