Fred Scully is determined to carve a new life for himself and his young family in Ireland. For months he has laboured alone to make their dilapidated cottage habitable, and now his wife and child are coming to meet him: this will be their fresh start. But when he arrives at the airport to collect them, only his small daughter steps off the plane …

So begins Tim Winton’s The Riders, shortlisted for the Booker Prize. This is Scully’s desperate journey across Europe, trying to track down the wife he comes to realize he didn’t know.