Violets - Alex Hyde

An astonishing debut novel of motherhood and loss in the dying days of the Second World War 'Moving, graceful... Violets has a compelling, quiet power all the way to its exquisitely affecting end' Megan Hunter, author of The Harpy and The End We Start From 'Stunning and original... Written in pristine prose, it reminded me of the possibilities of language' Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory A young woman, Violet, lies in a hospital bed in the closing days of World War Two.

Her pregnancy is over and she is no longer able to conceive. With her husband deployed in Burma and her friends caught up in transitory love affairs, she must find a way to put herself back together. In a small, watchful town in the Welsh valleys, another Violet contemplates the fate she shares with her unborn child.

Unwed, an overseas posting offers a temporary way out. Plunged into the heat and disorder of Naples, her body begins to reveal the responsibility it carries even as she is drawn into the burnished circle of a charismatic new friend, Maggie. Between these two Violets, sung into being like a babe in a nursery rhyme: a son.

As their lives begin to intertwine, a spellbinding story of women's courage emerges, suffused with power, lyricism and beauty, from an exhilarating new voice in British fiction. Beautiful, inventive and deeply moving.

• Liz Berry A novel of taut symmetry and dissonance... Alex Hyde's prose is rhythmically acute and emotionally layered. This is a subtle and daring book.
• Margo Jefferson