The Borrowed Hills

"Viscerally vivid . . . a sucker-punch of a novel, edged with knife-sharp black humour and shot through with moments of startling beauty . . . half Tarantino and half pitch-black northern realism" —Guardian (book of the day)

"Precisely focused with flavour, intensity, and oodles of character' —The Times

"Arrives like a punch to the gut . . . a Wild West–type tale of rustling and villainy, blood and belonging, transposed to the bleakly beautiful fells and sheep flocks of northern England. . . . This is an elemental tale shaded in tones of heroism, machismo, moral intensity, and mythmaking. It’s also a love song to the landscape . . . Gritty, gripping, and fearlessly committed." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"This dark and inspired tale pulses with life." ― Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed review)

With foot and mouth disease spreading across the hills of Cumbria, emptying the valleys of sheep and filling the skies with smoke, two neighbouring shepherds lose everything and put aside their rivalry to join forces. They set their sights on a wealthy farm in the south with its flock of prize-winning animals. So begins the dark tale of Steve Elliman and William Herne.

Their sheep rustling leads to more and more difficult decisions, and Steve's only distraction is his growing fascination with William's enigmatic and independent wife, Helen. As their home comes under the sway of a lawless outsider, it is left to Steve to save himself and Helen in a savage conflict that threatens an ancient way of life.

Lyrical, cinematic and steeping in folklore, Scott Preston creates an uncompromising vision of farmers lost in brutal devotion to their flocks, the aching love affairs that men and women use to sustain themselves and the painful consequences of a breathtaking heist gone bad. The Borrowed Hills is a thrilling adventure that reimagines the American Western for the fells of northern England.

"Taut, intelligent and beautifully told." —M. J. Hyland

"A story of anger and violence, devotion, love, and back-breaking hard work, told with dark, dead-pan humour and a rough kind of poetry." —Carys Davies

"A startlingly original addition to the literature of northern England." —Ian McGuire

"A powerful evocation of a landscape and a way of life." —Joseph Kanon

"Utterly absorbing. Preston writes with a poet's heart and a cinematic eye." —Rebecca Smith