Cloven Hooves

Cloven Hooves
Megan Lindholm

A magical, classic tale of the transformative power of love from Megan Lindholm, who also writes as Robin Hobb. Evelyn is a solitary child, preferring to wander in the woods in all weathers rather than socialise. Her secret is a fantastic companion: a faun with whom she plays in the woods. Years later Evelyn finds happiness as a wife and mother, but life turns sour when the family move to Tacoma where her husband is asked to fill in at hisfather’s business. Evelyn’s husband’s wish for them to stay permanently with his family causes a rift between them and then a terrible tragedy makes the situation even more impossible. Miraculously, when she needs a friend, Evelyn’s childhood companion reappears in Tacoma. Pan, now an adult satyr and a secret friend to both her and her son, eventually becomes her lover. He leads Evelyn on an odyssey out of her failed marriage to fulfilment in the woods of Alaska.

CLOVEN HOOVES

Megan Lindholm

Who also writes as

Robin Hobb

Copyright (#u4a6bf522-82d9-5d2a-b2e2-dab0ce50d7b3)

HarperVoyager

an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1993

Copyright © Megan Lindholm Ogden 1991

Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

Cover illustration © Jackie Morris

Robin Hobb writing as Megan Lindholm asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008287399

Ebook Edition © August 2019 ISBN: 9780008363956

Version: 2019-06-07

Praise (#u4a6bf522-82d9-5d2a-b2e2-dab0ce50d7b3)

‘Hobb is one of the great modern fantasy writers … As addictive as morphine’

The Times

‘A little slice of heaven’

The Guardian

‘The feelings of anguish, ambiguity, fear and failure [in her novels] are as familiar as those in a novel by Jonathan Franzen’

Independent on Sunday

‘Hobb is always readable. But the elegant translucence of her prose is deceptive … That is the ambition of high art. The novelists in any genre are rare who achieve it with Hobb’s combination of accessibility and moral authority’

Sunday Telegraph

‘A series that recalls HBO’s Game of Thrones, and The Lord of the Rings’

The Telegraph

‘In today’s crowded fantasy market Robin Hobb’s books are like diamonds in a sea of zircons’

George R.R. Martin

‘Hobb is superb, spinning wonderful characters and plots from pure imagination’

Conn Iggulden

‘Magic is the word. Absolutely riveting’

Barbara Erskine

‘Hobb seamlessly blends intrigue, action and characters who feel so real that they become more than words on a page’

SFX

‘Glorious and beautiful storytelling from Robin Hobb’

SciFi Now

Contents

Cover (#u412e7488-d872-556b-a70a-2bf53a63dad0)

Title Page (#ua5809da3-20b2-5f1b-a4c4-f8e043e8c063)

Copyright

Praise

Chapter One