Fault Lines

Sol is a gifted but also terrifying six year old; his mother believes he is destined for greatness. He has a birthmark, like his dad, his grandmother and great-grandmother. But when they all make an unexpected trip to Germany, terrible secrets emerge about their family’s story during World War II. Perhaps birthmarks are not all that has been passed down through this family.

With its domestic focus but epic scope, Fault Lines is a compelling, touching and often funny novel about four generations of children and their parents. From California to New York, from Haifa to Toronto and Munich, the secrets unwind back through time, the present haunted by the past, until we reach the devastating truth. Nancy Huston tells a riveting, vigorous tale, in which love, music and faith rage against the shape of evil. You’ll find Fault Lines, with its powerfully drawn characters, hard to put down.

A bestseller in France, where it won the prestigious Prix Femina in 2006, Fault Lines is currently being translated into eighteen languages.

Praise for Fault Lines:

‘Combines the psychological tension of a thriller with sweeping literary brilliance. Huston…succeeds in exploring the darkest of subjects with a lightness of touch…I relished the ride…Seamlessly shifting from one point of view to the next, the plot thickens to a searing climax.’

Sydney Morning Herald

‘Huston’s brilliance is in how she gradually lets the reader in on the secret and draws out the revelation so carefully that by the time the reader arrives at the heart of the matter in Munich 1944, the discovery hits with blunt force. Huston masterfully links the 20th century’s misery to 21st-century discomfort in razor-sharp portraits of children as they lose their innocence.’

Publishers Weekly

‘Explosive in its control and its ambition.’

Le Figaro