The Mountain in my Shoe

By Louise Beech

After years of abuse, Bernadette makes the decision to leave her husband, only to find that he is missing … along with a little boy she’d befriended years earlier. A tense, dramatic and moving novel from the bestselling author of How To Be Brave and The Lion Tamer Who Lost.

‘Full of beautiful descriptions, images and observations … hauntingly poignant, with a relentless tension and pace’ Katie Marsh

’Moving, engrossing and richly drawn, this is storytelling in its purest form … mesmerising’ Amanda Jennings

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A missing boy. A missing book. A missing husband. A woman who must find them all to find herself.

On the night Bernadette finally has the courage to tell her domineering husband that she’s leaving, he doesn’t come home. Neither does Conor, the little boy she’s befriended for the past five years. Also missing is his lifebook, the only thing that holds the answers.

With the help of Conor’s foster mum, Bernadette must face her own past, her husband’s secrets and a future she never dared imagine in order to find them all.

Exquisitely written and deeply touching, The Mountain in My Shoe is both page-turning psychological suspense and a powerful and emotive examination of the meaning of family … and just how far we’re willing to go for the people we love.

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‘Deft and full of emotions’ Irish Times

‘It is a brilliantly creative work of fiction’ We Love this Book (The Bookseller)

‘A fabulous, exquisitely written novel that tugs at the soul … incredibly moving’ David Young

‘A moving and powerful book’ Jane Lythell

‘A rich, psychologically profound novel about overcoming adversity … It’s a masterpiece’ Gill Paul

‘Dark, compelling and highly thought-provoking … a fascinating page-turner that wrenches at your insides’ Off-the-Shelf Books

‘A wonderful, nuanced book probing the damages wreaked by absence and neglect, while exploring the power of love and hope … and what it means to be truly “home”. It made me laugh and cry by turns. I loved it’ Melissa Bailey

‘An exquisite novel. Darkly compelling emotionally charged. And I LOVED it!’ Jane Isaac

• Language: English
• Publisher: ORENDA BOOKS
• Release date: Jul 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781910633403

Louise Beech

Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2015. The follow-up, The Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for Not the Booker Prize. Both of her previous books Maria in the Moon and The Lion Tamer Who Lost were widely reviewed, critically acclaimed and number-one bestsellers on Kindle. The Lion Tamer Who Lost was shortlisted for the RNA Most Popular Romantic Novel Award in 2019. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice. Louise lives with her husband on the outskirts of Hull, and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012.

Reviews for The Mountain in my Shoe

[nicx27 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Mountain in My Shoe is the story of Bernadette and Conor. Conor is a 10 year old boy who has been pushed from pillar to post through the care system. His mum can't look after him properly and he has never known who his dad is, but at least now he has a stable home with his long-term foster carer, Anne. Bernadette is a volunteer for Befriend for Life and has been a friend to Conor for the last five years, meeting him once a fortnight and taking him out and generally being a supportive adult influence for him. All in one night, Conor goes missing, Bernadette's husband, Richard, doesn't come home, and Conor's lifebook, which people have been adding to all his life, also goes missing. This is a beautifully written, imaginative and profound book, told from the viewpoints of Conor and Bernadette, and interspersed with sections from the lifebook, which help to explain certain things or set the scene. Louise Beech has perfected the art of showing and not telling the reader what is happening. Her characters are so well drawn that I felt like I got to know them and what they were thinking, and I completely empathised with the main players. Conor is a lovely boy but, probably unlike many other readers of this book, Bernadette was the person who I most wanted to hear from. I thought she was a lovely person and I wanted her to be happy. The backdrop to the story is well-written too. The trees outside Bernadette's home and the river play their own parts in the story.I'm a bit surprised to find it has been called a psychological thriller. It has psychological aspects to it but I don't think it's a thriller. It's a moving piece of literary fiction. It's a complex story but it feels effortless to read and never complicated. There was something so quietly involving about it, it sort of crept up on me and I got to the end and felt completely satisfied. I think that Louise Beech is one to watch in the future.