beyond the moon

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In 1916 1st Lieutenant Robert Lovett is a patient at Coldbrook Hall convalescent hospital in Sussex, England. A gifted artist he’s been wounded in WW1 – the Great War. Shell shocked and suffering from hysterical blindness he can no longer see his own face, let alone paint, and life seems increasingly hopeless.

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A century later in 2017 medical student Louisa Casson has just lost her beloved grandmother, her only real family. Heartbroken, she drowns her sorrows in alcohol on the nearby South Downs cliffs – only to fall accidentally part-way down. Doctors fear she may have attempted suicide, and Louisa finds herself involuntarily admitted to Coldbrook Hall, now a psychiatric hospital, an unfriendly and chaotic place.

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Then one day, while secretly exploring the old Victorian hospital’s ruined, abandoned wing, Louisa stumbles across a dark, old-fashioned hospital room. Lying inside, in an antiquated iron-framed bed is a mysterious, sightless young man, who tells her he was injured at the Battle of the Somme, a WW1 battle fought more than one hundred years earlier. And that his name is Lieutenant Robert Lovett…

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Part war story, part timeslip, part love story – and at the same time a meditation on the themes of war, mental illness, identity and art, Beyond The Moon is an intelligent, captivating debut novel, perfect for book clubs.

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For fans of Kate Quinn, Sebastian Faulks, Diana Gabaldon, Ken Follett, Kate Mosse, Kristin Hannah, Kate Morton and Paullina Simons.