The story focuses on the relationship of two men, Jacob Cullen and Christopher Ferris, and is set during the English Civil War.
They desert their posts in Cromwell’s New Model Army to establish a farming commune in the countryside.
The novel was well received by critics including Orange Prize winner Lionel Shriver.
[2] McCann also contributed a short story titled Minimal to the anthology New Writing 12 published by the British Council in 2005.
It tells an interwoven tale of a recently married gentlewoman of some means, Sophia, her controlling but often absent and mysterious husband Mr Zedland, Titus the black slave he gives her as a wedding present, and Betsy-Ann an ex-prostitute.