Rona McPherson, a newly divorced woman, making repairs to her ancestral home in Aberdeen, uncovers in her attic dusty and moulding pages. A quick glance reveals that they appear to contain the diary of the entire life of a young man, Hugh Ross. His story begins in the late-nineteenth century, living with his mother in a croft in the far north of Scotland. Inspired by the arrival of a new, modern thinking minister, Ian Macleod, Hugh and his two best friends make the fateful decision to cross to the other side of the world and begin a new life in America.

As Rona sits late into the night, absorbed in his tale, she grows ever more connected to Hugh as she hears how his life lurches from crisis to crisis: the voyage on the Lady Grey, where conditions are so shocking those in steerage stage a revolt against the captain and his crew, and aboard which a cholera outbreak kills many of the passengers. The arrival in Canada, in the port town of Pictou, where the group try to settle but are swindled out of the few savings they have. The decision by the group of friends to split and go their separate ways. Hugh's grim, dark days in Chicago, working in the meat packing district. His journey west to the ruthless thriving Californian gold mining town where he loses what innocence he had left. His days in the American army, in Fort Tejon, and his hopes, finally, to be reunited with the girl he was in love with before he left his home, all those years ago.

And at the final turn of the page, we discover just how Hugh and Rona's stories are so inextricably linked, how we can never escape our past, and how our ancestors are as much a part of us as those who people our daily lives.

This is a wonderful, mesmerising novel with the range and impact of Joseph O’Connor’s Star of the Sea and the quiet beauty and depth of Peter Hobbs’ A Short Day Dying.

‘Donald Paterson is a writer of litheness, humanity, wisdom and ambition, and a truly great storyteller, whose take on life is artful and whose take on art is marvellously alive. You won't want this novel to end.’ Ali Smith

‘Paterson is an adroit and adept writer. As first novels go Homecomings triumphs. It is subtle, moving and smart in its shifts of tone and mood and pace. It paints a picture of modern America in its birth pangs, and of humanity's imperfections.’ Tom Adair, The Scotsman

Two Ravens Press UK.

Material: edited manuscript available.