Cloudless Boek

Beautiful and unflinching, Cloudless marks a remarkable debut by Dastur. Set in autumn 2004 on a hillside farmhouse outside Llandudno, it follows Catrin and John as they endure the wait for their eldest son’s return from Iraq. While the war casts a long shadow, other battles unfold at home—the labour of a family farm and the choices surrounding their troubled younger son. When Catrin’s childhood sweetheart returns to town, the life she might have led presses on her, while John bets increasingly risky measures to keep the farm afloat. As each member of the family clings to a tenuous lifeline, distance grows until a fateful knock at the door changes everything. Written in luminous, precisely calibrated prose, Cloudless is a deft exploration of fragility and resilience in human connection.

Dastur writes with devastating compassion about what it means to be human, balancing intimate family dynamics with wider questions of land, loyalty, and nation.

• Pages: 320, Paperback, Fig Tree
• Autumn 2004 setting, farmhouse outside Llandudno
• Central family: Catrin, John, and their two sons
• Themes: love, war, family, land, global politics
• Debut novel, critically acclaimed for tone and depth
• Release date: 19/02/2026