Published in 2019
257 pages
7 hours and 47 minutes
Lucie McKnight Hardy is a writer of novels and short stories. She grew up in West Wales and is a Welsh speaker. She has also lived in Liverpool, Cardiff, Zurich and Bradford, and has now settled in the far eastern reaches of Herefordshire, at the foot of the Malvern Hills, where she lives with her husband, three children and other assorted creatures. She has worked in the advertising, public relations and marketing industries, and has an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University.
What is this book about?
The heatwave of 1976. Following the accidental drowning of her sister, sixteen-year-old Nif and her family move to a small village on the Welsh borders to escape their grief. But rural seclusion doesn’t bring any relief. As her family unravels, Nif begins to put together her own form of witchcraft – collecting talismans from the sun-starved land. That is, until she meets Mally, a teen boy who takes a keen interest in her, and has his own secret rites to divulge.
Reminiscent of the suspense of Shirley Jackson and soaked in the folk horror of the British landscape, Water Shall Refuse Them is an atmospheric coming-of-age novel and a thrilling debut.
