When it comes to the art of beginning a novel, Evans could give a masterclass. From the heart-stopping riding accident that opened his famous work The Horse Whisperer, to the icy tension of the off-piste skiing that starts The Divide, he's put you on the edge of your seat before the story's even begun. And as the novel progresses, a combination of riveting plotline and gritty human interests keep you there. Evans's novels are always preoccupied with the tenuous balance of relationships,whether it's parent and child or husband and wife, and few authors are better at examining how we build up intimacy and how easily it can be lost, especially when disaster knocks at the door.

For many anguished months Ben and Sarah Cooper's daughter has been on the run from'the FBI, wanted for murder and acts of eco-terrorism. But when Abbie's body is found embedded in the ice of a remote mountain creek,the family's devastation deepens into mystery. How did she die? And what was the trail of events that led this golden child of a loving family so tragically astray?

In a journey of discovery and redemption that takes us from the streets of New York to the daunting grandeur of the West, The Divide tells the story of a family fractured by betrayal. It explores the pain we inflict on those we love the most and charts the passions and needs, the dashed hopes and disillusionments, that connect and divide all men and women.