History of David Grieve

David Grieve is four years old when his father dies and his mother follows shortly after, leaving him and his wild younger sister Louie to the care of relatives on a remote Peak District farm. The children endure a miserable existence with relatives who see them as burdens, but David's resilience carries him forward. When he finally escapes to Manchester, he builds a modest life in business, finding something like stability until his sister reappears, dragging chaos in her wake. The novel follows David to Paris and back, tracing his impossible attempt to save Louie from herself while carving out his own place in a brutal, indifferent world. Ward writes with fierce compassion about the bonds that bind and the prices people pay for belonging. This is a novel about what we owe family, what we owe ourselves, and whether redemption is possible when the world offers no easy mercy.