The Claim

Description

When Evan Cadwallader's father dies, leaving behind a legacy of debt and failed businesses, Evan is doubtful that the derelict cottage in the foothills of the mountains will provide the financial answer but decides to visit anyway. He falls in love with the simple property and its remote location and he tends and repairs it, creating a still oasis away from the loose and shifting life he leads in the world outside. He retreats there every summer, prospecting for gold at the claim that has been left to him by a passing stranger. One night his dog goes missing, and, following her frantic barks through a devil of a storm, he finds himself on a gorge edge, halfway down his claim, looking at the body of a young woman. Addie is close to death but Evan carries her to his cottage and nurses her back to health and their lives become intensely intertwined. Evan is torn between his growing feelings for Addie and the pull of his claim but they soon find their rhythm in this new, peaceful life and for a few glorious weeks they thrive. However Evan returns to the cottage one day to find the place ransacked and Addie gone. Frantic with worry he reports the break in and events spiral out of control. His faith falters and he begins to wonder how well he really knows this mysterious young woman, and whether love and truth have ever truly coexisted within this brief and intense affair.

David Briggs is a British-born geographer, environmental scientist, writer and poet. Following a career in academia in England, he moved to New Zealand in 2009. He now lives in Ruby Bay, near Nelson, where he devotes himself to creative writing, in the company of his wife and their three dogs. He is a published author of fiction, poetry and academic works.

David Briggs is a master tailor of a writer who takes the strands of love, life, disappointment, fear and hope and - using invisible thread - sews together a beautifully written and gripping novel. A rare talent indeed Mark Thompson, author of Dust