The Fish Ladder

Book excerpt: SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2016 LONGLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD 2015 TELEGRAPH BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2015 Katharine Norbury was abandoned as a baby in a Liverpool convent. Raised by loving adoptive parents, she grew into a wanderer, drawn by the beauty of the British countryside. One summer, following the miscarriage of a much-longed-for child, Katharine and her nine-year-old daughter Evie decide to follow a river from the sea to its source. But a chance circumstance forces Katharine to the door of the woman who gave her up all those years ago. Combining travelogue, memoir, exquisite nature writing, fragments of poetry and tales from Celtic mythology, The Fish Ladder is a captivating and life-affirming story about motherhood, marriage, family, and self-discovery, illuminated by the extraordinary majesty of the natural world.