How is the Marsh an important setting in the novel, A Map of Nowhere?

Joseph resides at Holney Seas End, a village "out on the Marsh." The distance is unspecified except by the long amount of time spent battling the icy wind off the sea, slippery fen footing, and vanishing light. The Marsh is an important setting geographically and symbolically in the novel. It is a "wild and lonely" place of unbroken fields, small clusters of distant lighted houses, and low fenlands without landmarks. Nick gets lost there more than once seeking a residence as remote from his own as Joseph's moral values seem to him.