‘Hill End 'is a massive work of fiction, a story-telling project spanning generations.  It is more than a place; it is a dense web of images, narrative, mythology; a site of contested meaning'. - Alison Bennett

In 1872 there is a piece of Earth and inside the piece of Earth is a cavern, and inside the cavern is a yellow stone, and inside the yellow stone is a strange kind of power that sometimes makes men and women glow and sometimes makes them feverish with greed.  This is the thing that draws Noah all the way up that steep and rugged hill to the small village where hundreds have already settled in the hope of finding gold.  His wife and two children have followed him – unwilling travelers afraid of bad fortune. 

Since the accident Noah remembers little of his life.  He sees faces, flashes and outlines.  He tries to read the lips of his wife Dianna who cries often, and wears her mourners dress every time she walks into the middle of town.  Dianna knows sadness.  Her sadness is a lake, a mountain.  It is black, like the dark hole in the ground that Noah went into in search of gold. 

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