Adder Stone

The members of an uprooted Welsh family go their own ways in a brutal clash over land, belonging and identity. Driven by love and anger, they must decide what – and whom – they can bear to lose

‘Thoroughly enjoyable, vivid and evocative’ Margaret Drabble 

It is 1963 and in north Wales the Jones family are being forcibly ejected from the land they have farmed for generations. Their valley is to be drowned, turned into a reservoir for the people of Liverpool.

While her husband Dai is grief-stricken, Olwen Jones privately sees it as a blessing, an unforeseen chance to escape the narrow confines of the valley. But for her teenage son Emyr, Liverpool’s careless arrogance is proof that Wales will never be free to decide its own future until, like Ireland, it breaks the shackles of English imperialism.

Based on true events, Adder Stone is an exploration of personal identity and the possibilities and limits of love. How far will we go for our child or for our country? Who are we when we lose the places and the people that define us? And how much, in the end, is it possible to forgive?

‘Beautifully written, incredibly moving... the highest calibre writing’ Lottie Moggach

‘A beautiful, breathtakingly written book, with shades of Claire Keegan’ Kate Hamer

‘Clare Clark treats the drowning of the Tryweryn Valley – that pivotal moment in modern Welsh history – with remarkable nuance and sensitivity. Adder Stone is a fine, rich novel, as heartfelt as it is compelling’ Tom Bullough

‘A new Clare Clark novel is always a cause for celebration; with prose both delicate and exact, she illuminates the inner life of her characters with a touch as deceptively light as it is stunningly accurate’ Louise Doughty

‘A moving and exquisitely crafted novel, I loved it’ Sadie Jones

‘A rare find . . . a novel that marries luminous prose with the narrative drive of a slow burn thriller’ Sarah Dunant

OUT NOVEMBER 2026. AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW

Hardback: 320pp

Published: Wilton Square (November 2026)

ISBN: 9781806770519