Salka : Lady of the Lake

The moment I saw her face.
The moment I heard her siren song . . .

Salka, the Lady of the Lake, meets Owain, a shepherd who frequently visits the loch. The pair start to fall in love and it is not long before they are married. Although they make each other happy, Salka is not like the other inhabitants in this small town, where people talk. Gossip turns against Salka, the envious start to question everything she says and does, and as prejudice and suspicion breed, Owain finds himself wishing his wife was more ordinary, that she tried harder to fit in, that she was less . . . herself.

Salka always said that if Owain ever betrayed her three times, she would disappear from his life. And now, desperately, their future lies in his hands . . .

Francesca Simon's first novel for an adult readership is an exquisite and tautly moving tragedy told by multiple voices, both a richly woven retelling of an ancient Welsh myth and a thought-provoking drama for our times.