Cloudless
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
It is autumn 2004 and in a farmhouse on the hills outside Llandudno, a family endures the agonizing wait for their son to return from Iraq. His decision to join up has left them reeling, yet there are other pressing concerns to be met at home: the working of the farmland that has been theirs for generations and what to do with their troubled younger son.
Catrin’s childhood sweetheart comes back to their small town, giving the boys’ doting mother a glimpse into the life she could have had. And John, their father, falls once more into his gambling habit, even as the farm sits on the brink of bankruptcy.
As each member of the family grasps at their own tenuous lifeline, they drift further from one another – until, on a cold winter evening, there is a fateful knock at the door.
Written in luminous, exquisitely calibrated prose, Cloudless is a masterful portrayal of the fragility and resilience of human connection.
'Beautiful and unflinching, Cloudless is a phenomenal debut' ANNA HOPE
‘A story about love and war, family and nation, addiction and recovery, told with intelligence, sensitivity and a huge heart. A must-read’ PAUL McVEIGH, author of The Good Son
‘Elegant and quietly devastating . . . Dastur affords his characters such grace and complexity that they transcend fiction to become people you feel that you know and care for deeply’ Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring
© Rupert Dastur 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
It is autumn 2004 and in a farmhouse on the hills outside Llandudno, a family endures the agonizing wait for their son to return from Iraq. His decision to join up has left them reeling, yet there are other pressing concerns to be met at home: the working of the farmland that has been theirs for generations and what to do with their troubled younger son.
Catrin’s childhood sweetheart comes back to their small town, giving the boys’ doting mother a glimpse into the life she could have had. And John, their father, falls once more into his gambling habit, even as the farm sits on the brink of bankruptcy.
As each member of the family grasps at their own tenuous lifeline, they drift further from one another – until, on a cold winter evening, there is a fateful knock at the door.
Written in luminous, exquisitely calibrated prose, Cloudless is a masterful portrayal of the fragility and resilience of human connection.
'Beautiful and unflinching, Cloudless is a phenomenal debut' ANNA HOPE
‘A story about love and war, family and nation, addiction and recovery, told with intelligence, sensitivity and a huge heart. A must-read’ PAUL McVEIGH, author of The Good Son
‘Elegant and quietly devastating . . . Dastur affords his characters such grace and complexity that they transcend fiction to become people you feel that you know and care for deeply’ Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring
© Rupert Dastur 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
Reviews
Deeply moving ... Set on a hill farm in north Wales, the cycles of the natural world are rendered with the same power and exactitude as the human dramas of love and loss which exist alongside them. Beautiful and unflinching, Cloudless is a phenomenal debut.
Anna Hope