About the Book
Beth Harper cannot love, or so she’s been told. She has been raised by custodians at Ailsa Craig House in the Scottish Highlands, where children are taught that love can be measured. Custodians take couples before an entity named 'The Judge', and interview them. Couples deemed 'whole' are granted eternal bliss by the judge, while the ‘incorrect’ are sacrificed.
But Beth starts to question things when her closest friends, Daniel and Saskia, are told that they are fated to love. As Beth grows up within Ailsa Craig, she must contend with what she has been taught and what she feels for Daniel.
What Beth doesn't yet know is that the custodians have greater plans for her and the deeper she delves into the mysteries of the judge, the more its will seeps into her . . .
The Author
Chris Barkley
Chris Barkley was appointed Writer in Residence by the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2022, working at an Alternative School in North Edinburgh. He has won the Oxford University Kellogg Writing Competition, the Bedford International Writing Prize, and has spoken at the Oxford Centre for Creative Writing. Edinburgh is where he stays.
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