The Borrowed Hills, Scott Preston
The Borrowed Hills, Scott Preston
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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The Borrowed Hills

Author: Scott Preston

Narrator: David Crellin

Unabridged: 8 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/04/2024


Synopsis

“Viscerally vivid…half Tarantino and half pitch-black northern realism.” —The Guardian, Named a Best Book of 2024 * “Unfolds with a pleasurable, slow-burn assurance.” —The New York Times Book Review

A stunning and “spiky debut” (The Times, London) novel set in the rugged, rural landscape of northwest England, where two sheep farmers lose their flocks and decide to reverse their fortunes by stealing sheep from a rich farm in the south—for fans of Annie Proulx and Cormac McCarthy.

In early 2001, a lethal disease breaks out on the hill farms of northwest England, emptying the valleys of sheep and filling the skies with smoke as they burn the carcasses. Two neighboring shepherds lose everything and set their sights on a wealthy farm in the south with its flock of prizewinning animals. So begins the dark tale of Steve Elliman and William Herne.

As their sheep rustling leads to more and more difficult decisions, the struggles of the land are never far away. Steve’s only distraction is his growing fascination with William’s enigmatic and independent wife, Helen. When their mountain home comes under the sway of a lawless outsider, Colin Tinley, Steve must save himself and Helen in a savage conflict that threatens the ancient ways of the Lakeland fells.

Told in the hardscrabble voice of a forgotten England, 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 “strides confidently across its pages, like the seasoned work of a veteran” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), a thrilling and gritty adventure that reimagines the American Western for Britain’s moors and mountains where survival is in the blood.

About Scott Preston

Scott Preston is from Windermere in the English Lake District. He studied philosophy at the University of Sheffield before working as a copywriter. He is a graduate of the University of Manchester’s creative writing program and received a PhD in prose fiction from King’s College London. The Borrowed Hills is his first novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Blair on April 12, 2024

I’ve been putting off writing about The Borrowed Hills; I’m worried I don’t have the ability to do it justice. My notes are crowded with ecstatic but useless phrases like ‘the real deal’ and ‘holy shit, this is a BOOK’. And in some ways I’d like to leave it at that. For better or worse, however, I l......more

Goodreads review by Emily May on March 12, 2024

I've been trying to convince myself I liked this one more than I did, what with it being set in the North of England and it bringing all my favourite slang to the page. It's especially great to see the underappreciated "maungy" in a book. The Borrowed Hills has a very strong sense of place and a uniq......more

Goodreads review by Kate on March 14, 2024

A stunning, visceral debut from Scott Preston who has written a book drenched in the oppressive atmosphere of the Cumbrian hills during one of the worst periods in the lives of hill farmers. Steve Elliman is our narrator. He comes back to his family home to help his father during the cull of sheep d......more

Goodreads review by Yahaira on May 22, 2024

I’m not even sure how to talk about this book. The first 60 pages were so gripping, visceral, and perfect, that I would have accepted it ending there. I’m still choking on the smoke, burning up from the heat of the fires, covering up my ears to block out the endless bleating. Borrowed Hills is a bea......more

Goodreads review by Katrina on March 25, 2024

I relished this bloody, twisting story of men chained by both guts and heart to the sheep-shat hills. (this is my unprofessional review)......more


Quotes

"Crellin authentically depicts painful decisions, gut-wrenching descriptions of killing sheep and burning carcasses, and other aspects of the struggle to survive against all odds in the Cumbrian fells."