'I'm twenty-one, it's the law, I'm twenty-one, I'm shouting it to my parents and then it stops and a tense quiet hovers in the waiting house.

Am I to die in this place, I've written in my journal on that blunted birthday; before my life has even begun?'

This is the story of Lillie Bird, a woman from a locked religious community who one day finds herself in the freedom of a strange new world, England, accused of murdering a man.

But it was here, in this land of cold, dark skies and scuffed and tumbling streets, that she had first found the pleasure and the sadness, and the love, she had for years so desperately sought.

Lovesong is at once a celebration of the human spirit and a powerful story of exile, identity and love. Mesmerizing and heartbreaking, this is Nikki Gemmell's finest work.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14