Amanda

England in the 1920s is a nation in turmoil, its foundations shaken by the Great War and the collapse of genteel Edwardian society. The streets are haunted by shell-shocked men, runaways, mutilated veterans, damned poets, and revolutionaries.

Marion has fled Galway for Oxford after her elopement with a violent man ended violently. In the City of Dreaming Spires, where the cobbled streets, barely lit pubs, and underground book presses hum with restless energy, she meets Jamie, a damaged soul like her who is struggling to recover from his experiences at the front. He alone sees her scars. She alone knows his secret name. Their love is wild, dangerous, and absolute. Everything, it seems, is at stake.

When Marion suddenly disappears without explanation, Jamie throws himself into professional ambitions to distract from his loss and despair. But their love is like gravity—an undeniable force pitted against all that would keep them apart.

At once an erotic drama, a formally inventive romantic epic, and a historical novel written with emotional intensity, Amanda is a poignant, atmospheric meditation on love, trauma, and redemption. H.S. Cross has given readers a stylish, unforgettable novel on the infinite varieties of human experience.

“That Cross’s voice—some combination of Edna O’Brien, Muriel Spark, and maybe a pinch of Jane Austen—comes from a contemporary American writer is hard to believe. Mesmerizing, haunting, hopeful.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred) on Amanda