A Change of Climate

In the quiet, windswept landscape of Norfolk, 1980, Frances and Julian Murdstone lead seemingly ordinary lives as Anglican ministers, raising their children and tending to their community. However, beneath this serene surface lies an unhealed wound: the abduction and presumed death of their infant son, Peter, decades earlier in Bechuanaland (now Botswana). The novel masterfully weaves between their present-day struggles and the vivid, often harrowing, flashbacks to their time as missionaries in 1960s Southern Africa. There, confronted by the brutal realities of apartheid, political upheaval, and moral compromise, they made choices that reverberate through their lives, defining their marriage, their faith, and their identities. As the past relentlessly encroaches on the present, Frances and Julian are forced to re-examine the unspeakable loss that shaped them, the secrets they kept, and the true cost of their devotion, both to God and to each other. Mantel crafts a searing exploration of grief, guilt, and the enduring legacies of love and trauma across continents and generations.