Futh, a middle-aged, recently separated man heads to Germany for a restorative walking holiday. During his circular walk along the Rhine, he contemplates the formative moments of his childhood. At the end of the week, Futh returns to what he sees as the sanctuary of his hotel, unaware of the events which have been unfolding there in his absence. Alison Moore's first novel, The Lighthouse , was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Awards, winning the McKitterick Prize. Both The Lighthouse and her second novel, He Wants (Biblioasis, 2015), were Observer Books of the Year. A third novel, Death and the Seaside , is forthcoming in the US from Biblioasis. Her shorter fiction has been included in Best British Short Stories and Best British Horror anthologies and is collected in The Pre-War House and Other Stories . Moore lives in a village on the Leicestershire-Nottinghamshire border with her husband and son.