Matteo Righetto

'Harrowing, suspenseful and convincing . . . beautiful' Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone 'Poignant . . . haunting and altoether memorable' Booklist A story of revenge and salvation Two years ago, Augusto De Boer embarked on his annual journey through the Italian Alps, attempting to smuggle his family's tobacco crop across the border to Austria. He never returned. Now Augusto's daughter Jole must retrace her father's steps alone, navigating the perilous crags and valleys surrounding the border to discover the truth about her father's disappearance. Soul of the Border is a ferocious tale of revenge, salvation, and an exhilarating journey into the wild.

The de Boer family are tobacco growers, working on terraces in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Life is hard, and the father, Augusto, occasionally supplements their income by smuggling tobacco across the border into Austria. Sometimes he takes his daughter Jole with him, and father and daughter journey together on the perilous route over the mountains. But Augusto mysteriously never returns from one of these trips, and Jole, driven to provide for her family, inherits her father's smuggling route. Accompanied only by her horse, Sansom, she must retrace the dangerous journey through the spectacular landscape, hoping for a good trade in exchange for her tobacco, but also to discover the truth behind her father's disappearance. Written in a spare crystalline prose and filmic in scope, Soul of the Border is an epic story of revenge and salvation, a ferocious tale of violence and corruption, and a journey into the wild.