The eagerly awaited English translation by Gwen Davies of Y Gemydd, by multiple Wales Book of the Year winner Caryl Lewis.

Join the author and translator in discussion.

“A gem of a story about the mistakes made in the name of love, and the magic needed to mend. Language gleams here, even in the darkest moments – a beguiling, mythic tale of redemption.” Katherine Stansfield

Mari supplements her modest trade as a market stall holder with the wares she acquires from clearing the houses of the dead. She lives alone in a tiny cottage by the shore, apart from a monkey that she keeps in a cage, surrounding herself with the lives of others, combing through letters she has gleaned, putting up photographs of strangers on her small mantelpiece.

But Mari is looking for something beyond saleable goods for her stall. As she works on cutting a perfect emerald, she inches closer to a discovery that will transform her life and throw her relationships with old friends into relief. To move forward she must shed her life of things past and start again. How she does so is both surprising and shocking…