Under This Unbroken Sky. Shandi Mitchell/ Phoenix, £7.99.

IN SPRING, 1938, Teodor returns home after nearly two years spent in prison for the crime of trying to feed his children.

Now he and his family are determined not only to survive, but to build a better life for themselves.

But, it is not just the unrelenting Canadian landscape that Teodor must fight against.

His sister's husband has an unforgivable plan that threatens to take everything away from them. Nearly all is lost when brother is pitted against a sister and mother against her child.

Gripping, unsentimental and harsh, yet beautifully told.

CHRIS BURGESS