The Dark Meadow — Andrea Maria Schenkel

Bavaria, Germany, 1947.

At the end of the war, Afra Zauner returns to her parents' cottage on the edge of Mauther Forest. Unmarried, and pregnant. As she struggles to raise her child, her father's shame, her mother's fury and the loud whispers of the neighbours begin to weigh upon her. She doesn't believe in her sin. But everyone else does.

And someone brings judgement down upon her.

Many years later, Hermann Müller is throwing a drunk out of his tavern. A traveller, who won't stop ranting about a murder left unsolved, about police who never investigated. Out of curiousity, the file is reopened. And in the cold light of hindsight, a chilling realisation creeps upon the community.

No-one ever atoned for Afra's death. But her story is waiting to be told.

Andrea Maria Schenkel returns to the form of her groundbreaking The Murder Farm, narrating through suspects, victims and investigators to lead the reader to their own awful understanding.