Seventeen-year-old Anita is left rootless and tormented by feelings of guilt after a series of traumatic losses. When a letter is discovered amongst her father's papers, she vows to discover the truth about the Irish grandmother she had thought long dead, but her initial search leads nowhere. Eleven years later, against the background of a precarious life as an artist in 1980s' London, and the Troubles of Northern Ireland, an unexpected gift finally sets Anita on her quest to unravel family secrets and betrayals. As she uncovers the story of Liza, her maternal grandmother, she comes to understand how unhealed wounds have been passed down through generations of women in her family. A baby stolen at birth, lives torn apart by loss - she must heal the broken line of her maternal lineage. The author has a gift for making her story telling compelling and empathetic on subjects that can often be painful.

Linda Hartley studied dance and creative writing at Dartington College of Arts, UK, then went on to train as a somatic movement therapist and psychotherapist. She has worked in these fields for many years as a therapist and teacher, developing professional training programmes in Germany, the UK, Lithuania and Russia. She has offered workshops and retreats that explore the relationship between movement, image and words, and currently leads retreats in the Discipline of Authentic Movement in her Norfolk studio. Writing has always woven through her practice.

the broken line is her first novel, and angel wing is its prequel.

Linda lives in England, near the North Norfolk coast.