The Dig

His author bio says Cynan Jones has published, along with his novels, a "retelling of a medieval Welsh myth," which isn't surprising after reading The Dig. It has the fatalistic momentum of myth or fairy tale, as the lives of two men, one struggling to manage a small farm alone and the other an outcast engaged in the cruel and illegal business of badger baiting, are drawn together. Jones is terse and exact about the work they each do, and harsh and beautiful about the lonely will that drives each toward the other.