Twelve Moons: A year under a shared sky cover art

Twelve Moons: A year under a shared sky

A year under a shared sky

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Twelve Moons: A year under a shared sky

By: Caro Giles
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About this listen

TWELVE MOONS follows a year spent caught between the wild sea and the changing moon of the wide Northumberland skies.

Caro Giles lives on the far edge of the country, with her tribe of daughters: The Mermaid, The Whirlwind, The Caulbearer and The Littlest One. She is at once alone and yet surrounded. Bound by circumstance, financial constraints, illness and the challenges of single motherhood, she has nowhere to go but the fierce landscape that surrounds her.

Over the course of the year, the moon becomes her fellow traveller through dark times, and companion through joyful ones – and even when the sky is wreathed in cloud, the moon is still felt in the pull of the tides.

TWELVE MOONS follows the lunar calendar, each chapter sharing a month and a moon, and shows the simmering power that lies in our often hidden daily lives. A dazzlingly honest memoir that while never turning away from the awkward truths of life, also shows how love will flourish if we can only find a space for ourselves.

Set against windswept beaches and ancient hills, this is a story steeped in nature and landscape. Since our earliest days, mankind has looked up at the moon and seen a story reflected back. Twelve Moons is one of those stories – a book about finding yourself, your voice and a sense that even in the dark of the night, we are never truly alone.

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Critic reviews

‘A beautiful, poignant read.’ Emma Gannon

‘A reminder of motherhood’s tyrannous altruism, and of how nature’s changing contrasts – the moon, sea and seasons – can re-root us even during the hardest emotional storms.’ New Statesman

‘A work of such determined beauty and generosity: the story of a mother making art and meaning in a difficult year and a remote location. Moonlit, full of strong tidal feeling, and deeply moving’ Tanya Shadrick

‘An incredibly poetic memoir…a woman finding her way back to herself’ Marianne Levy

‘A beautiful, absorbing story of what happens when a family doesn’t fit the mould and how solace can be found in the elements’ Amy Liptrot

‘A gorgeous, touching telling of a year of wild mothering – at the edge of place and time – but written straight from the very heart of its author’

Kerri ní Dochartaigh

‘In this raw, fiercely honest memoir Caro Giles illuminates the madness, magic and mess of motherhood. It is a love letter to the wilds of Northumberland, a song to the pull of the sea and a heartful exploration of what it means to be broken and to fight to piece yourself back together’ Lulah Ellender

‘A hypnotic memoir of motherhood…Twelve Moons is an exploration of the annihilation and reclaiming of self that so many readers will recognise and return to. Caro Giles' writing exerts a gravitational pull, and her story of entanglement and enchantment, loneliness and love is a gift for these times’ Rebecca Schiller

‘There is power in her description of the relentlessness of life as a single parent, and in her evocation of the devastation that her divorce caused. You’ll finish the book full of admiration for Giles’s devotion to her girls, and hoping that she finds the identity she’s searching for’ Mail on Sunday

All stars
Most relevant
I liked everything . Well written and read. Lovely descriptions of nature and her girls. Lovely read.

What a great mum she is!

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Wonderfully written. I loved Caro’s style and honesty. I cannot wait to read more and more of her work

Moving and hopeful

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The author’s voice was beautiful to listen to - her honesty of just how hard it is to be a Mother, her description of her surroundings. I found the whole experience of listening to her book compelling, magical mixed with the harsh realities of this World.

Strength, frailty and beauty

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This is a gorgeous book. I have both the audiobook and the print, as it's one of those beautiful reads that you just want to absorb into yourself in every possible medium. Caro's style and voice are so evocative and expressive, its a book you don't want to put down. So real, raw, tender, emotional. I have so many different emotional responses to it that it's actually difficult to unpick.. empathy for the author's struggles, understanding as a fellow mother of four , a shared love of wild places; her descriptions are utterly magical. It also lead to the uncomfortable realisation that I compare my own mothering with others far more than I should, my own always coming up short. Inwardly tearing myself down even as I'm feeling solidarity and awe for another woman's strength and resilience. What strange creatures we are.
I LOVED this book and will be recommending it to every woman I'm close to. I can't wait to read this author's future work.

Special, Stunning.

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I absolutely loved this book and was sorry when it finished. Caro Giles writes with lyrical prose creating a haunting and poignant memoir. It was incredibly moving and evoked beautifully the Northumberland landscape and the heartbreaking journey to raise 4 daughters on her own whilst desperately trying to get the help her eldest daughter needs. It is visceral, thought provoking and shines a much needed light on the woeful situation for neurodivergent children not only in the school system but in the world. My favourite book not only of the year but of this decade.

12 Moons, a memoir

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