Bookish John Cole, aloof and alone in middle age, walks out of his life on the thirty-first day without rain. Making his way to the Norfolk coast, his car breaks down in the punishing heat. Abandoning it on an isolated road, he comes to a solitary house whose residents welcome him in. ​ But there's more to this curious community hidden in the Thetford pines than meets the eye: his hosts all know him by name. They've prepared a room for him, and claim to have been waiting for him all along…  " ... unsettling and beguiling, and beautifully lyrical, this stunning literary debut marks Sarah Perry as a terrifically talented novelist of the very highest calibre." - John Burnside, The Guardian.