Karen Ardiff's debut novel is a slow-burning, gothic and utterly compelling tale of a facially disfigured woman in the Dublin of the 1930s and the curious sequence of events that unfurl after her wealthy relatives offer her the chance of a new life free from the stigma of such deformity.

Ardiff's carefully constructed and supremely detailed characters are exceptionally believable and the story weaves deftly between the myriad individuals who are touched and altered by the enigmatic young girl