'Fascinating debut’ - David Robinson, The Scotsman Trapped in a post-apocalyptic Highland village, city journalist Carl Shewan struggles to cope with the death of the only other person who knows the truth behind this brutal new reality. As a new order asserts itself among the survivors, Carl’s relationship with the mother of his unborn child, and with the wider community, comes under increasing strain until a local gamekeeper offers him an alternative to guilt and alienation. Set in a near-future Scotland, Lie of the Land dissects the psyche of the outsider and questions how far the state will go to preserve an ordered society. MICHAEL F, RUSSELL grew up on Barra. After various jobs in Stornoway and Edinburgh, he studied Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow, followed by a postgraduate diploma in Journalism Studies at the University of Strathclyde. He is deputy editor at the West Highland Free Press and writes occasionally for the Sunday Herald. His writing has appeared in Gutter, Northwards Now and Fractured West. He lives on Skye with his partner and two children.