The Wood at Midwinter The Times Top Ten bestseller

<p><b>**<i>The Times </i>instant Top Ten bestseller**<br><br>**Named a book to look out for in 2024 by the <i>Sunday Times</i>, <i>Guardian </i>and BBC**<br><br>**A small hardback edition featuring an afterword by the author**<br><br>From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of <i>Piranesi </i>and <i>Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell</i>, an enchanting and haunting Christmas short story<br><br></b><b>_________________________________<br></b><br><i>‘A church is a sort of wood. A wood is a sort of church. They’re the same thing really.’</i><br><br>Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scott is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees – and she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods.<br><br>One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst – and the path of her life is changed forever.<br><br><b>''Like Hilary Mantel, Clarke has made the very notion of genre seem quaint'' <i>Guardian</i></b><br><b>''A miraculous and luminous feat of storytelling'' Madeline Miller </b><br><br><b>**With exquisite illustrations by Victoria Sawdon**</b></p>