Avalon

In 972, the Provençal nobleman Rumon is shipwrecked in Cornwall and takes responsibility for Merewyn, a young woman raised to believe she descends from King Arthur. Their journey brings them to the court of King Edgar and Queen Alfrida, where desire, ambition and dynastic violence separate them before Merewyn is seized during a Viking raid.

Rumon’s search follows the expanding Norse world through Ireland and across the North Atlantic, while Merewyn builds a new life in Iceland and Greenland. Spanning several decades, the novel connects Anglo-Saxon court politics, monastic life, Viking settlement and exploration with the unresolved bond between two people repeatedly divided by pride, distance and changing identity.