The Barefoot Road

Vivienne Vermes' debut novel is a gripping read that will appeal to readers who enjoy historical fiction, thrillers and evocative themes. A young woman is found, emaciated and unconscious, in the mountains surrounding a village in Transylvania. When the villagers discover that she is of the same ethnic group that was driven out of the region years before, they are reminded of their part in the bloodshed, and old wounds reopen. An uneasy peace is maintained until a young married man falls in love with her, and tensions rise within the community. While the story unfolds in the microcosm of a small village in the past, its themes are as universal as they are timeless: the fear of the outsider, the supernatural versus the rational, and the force of desire between man and woman.