A Slow Air

David Harrower's dramatic and moving tale about family and community.

Morna works as a cleaner for well-off families in Edinburgh. She spends her time drinking mostly, attempting affairs and trying to work out the mind of her 20-year-old son with whom she shares her Dalry flat. Athol, her elder brother by 2 years, moved to the West of Scotland years ago with his wife Evelyn. The owner of a floor tiling company, with two grown up children, he's proud of his hard-won achievements.

Like any brother and sister they have fond and not-so fond memories of their upbringing, differing views on their parents and definite opinions about each other. But Morna and Athol haven't spoken a word to each other in fourteen years.

When Morna's son Joshua travels west to make contact with Athol he sets off, for all of them, a remarkable and life-changing series of events...

'An elegant, deceptively complex piece of writing' (The Times).