Promise

Description

From the author of His Other House How far would you go to protect a child in danger? When a new family moves in next door, it takes Anna just two days to realise something is very wrong. She can hear their five-year-old daughter Charlie crying, then sees injuries on the little girl that she cannot ignore. Anna reports the family to the police and social services, but no one comes to Charlie's aid. So when the girl turns up at her door asking for help, the only thing Anna can think to do is take her and run. Raising deeply felt questions about our responsibility for the children around us, Promise asks if Charlie were my neighbour, what would I do? PRAISE FOR HIS OTHER HOUSE "Extraordinarily compelling ...To elaborate on Sarah Armstrong's seemingly simple plot would betray the book's deep, intertwining roots ...A tour de force." Australian Women's Weekly "You can feel the weather, the damp of northern NSW, seep through the story just as a secret creates rot in a relationship." Herald Sun "Armstrong's prose is striking and clear; there is a tenderness to how her characters are portrayed ...Instead of pitting one character against another, she undertakes the task of asking us to understand them . ..Instead of giving us someone to blame, it shows us how easy it is to inadvertently cause harm." Weekend Australian

Sarah Armstrong's first novel, Salt Rain, was shortlisted for several awards including the Miles Franklin and her second novel His Other House was widely praised. She was a radio journalist at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where she won a Walkley Award. She now lives in northern New South Wales with her partner, writer Alan Close, and their young daughter.