The Slowworm's Song

An innocent-looking letter drops on to the doormat in Stephen Rose's Somerset home like an unexploded bomb. It is a summons to an inquiry in Belfast about an incident during the Troubles--one he has long walled off in his mind.

An ex-soldier and recovering alcoholic, Stephen has just begun to form a fragile bond with his daughter, whose upbringing he missed. How can he agree to testify and risk losing her now?

Instead, Stephen decides to write her an account of his life; a confession, a defence, a love letter. Also a means of buying time. But time is running out, and the day comes when he must face again what happened in that distant summer of 1982.

Giving an insight into the Troubles from an uncommon perspective, this is a profound and tender tale of guilt, a search for atonement and the hard, uncertain work of loving.