Epoque Press

If you could save the life of a loved one by trading in years of your own life, how many years would you give? How many lives could you save? Would you know when to stop?

Jessica Miller is fascinated by the somewhat perplexing tendency of humans to end their own lives, but she secretly believes such acts may not be that bad after all. Or at least, she did.

This debut novel is a dark reimagining of `The Pied Piper of Hamelin'.

Sharing stories of myths, legends and ancient bogs, a deaf child and her grandmother experiment with the lyrical beauty of sign language. Learning to communicate through their shared love of trees they find solace in the shapes and susurrations of leaves in the wind. A poignant tale of family bonding and the quiet acceptance of change.

This dark and lyrical debut novel confronts a claustrophobic rural community caught up in the uncertainties of a rapidly changing world.

If the River is Hidden charts the journey of two writers from the source to the mouth of the Bann, Northern Ireland's longest river. Through a dialogue of prose and poetry the history, landscape and divisions that have come to define the North are explored and challenged.