Ghost Wall: Sarah Moss - Hardcover

Moss, Sarah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1783784458 ISBN 13: 9781783784455

Publisher: Granta Books, 2018

Synopsis

*LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2019*

'Like nothing I have read before... stayed with me all summer... It deserves to [put her] on to the prize podiums.' The Times

'Moss has quietly... been putting out some of the most interesting and carefully sculpted novels of recent years... Ghost Wall... is her best novel yet' Financial Times

'Ghost Wall is a burnished gem of a book, brief and brilliant, and with it Moss's star is firmly in the ascendant' Guardian

'...one of our very best contemporary novelists. How she hasn't been nominated for the Man Booker Prize continues to mystify me' The Independent

'one of the finest contemporary writers working in Britain today' Stylist

'Is Sarah Moss the best British writer never nominated for the Booker? ... as brief and unsettling as a bolt of lightning... pins us to the page with creeping menace' Daily Mail

'Amazing... disturbing and touching' Maggie O'Farrell in The Times

'An instant classic' Emma Donoghue

'This book ratcheted the breath out of me so skilfully, that as soon as I'd finished, the only thing I wanted was to read it again.' Jessie Burton

Teenage Silvie and her parents are living in a hut in Northumberland as an exercise in experimental archaeology. Her father is a difficult man, obsessed with imagining and enacting the harshness of Iron Age life. Haunting Silvie's narrative is the story of a bog girl, a young woman sacrificed by those closest to her, and the landscape both keeps and reveals the secrets of past violence and ritual as the summer builds to its harrowing climax.

About this title

Review

'Sarah Moss stands out... It's writing that, along with vivid responses to the natural world and acute alertness to class, regional and sexual tensions, recalls the early fiction of DH Lawrence. It brings enriching complexity to this tale of escalating menace'--Sunday Times

'At just 149 pages, [Ghost Wall is] a short, sharp shock of a book that closes around you like a vice as you read it... This story is tauter and tenser [than previous]: plot driven, time limited and entirely out of the ordinary... Ghost Wall is a burnished gem of a book, brief and brilliant, and with it Moss's star is firmly in the ascendant'--Guardian

'Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss's sixth novel, is further proof that she's one of our very best contemporary novelists ... It's an intoxicating concoction; inventive, intelligent, and like no other author's work... beautifully evocative'--The Independent

'I'm a great fan of Sarah Moss's work; she combines poetic sensibility with great storytelling... Moss is brilliant on atmosphere'--John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

'If you need proof that good things come in small packages, look no further than Ghost Wall... dark and simmering... quickens its pace with every turn of the page, refusing to let you pause for breath until it reaches its alarming finale... atmospheric and earthy... vivid... it's a marvel that Moss has created such a rich tale in so few words'--Stylist

'Stunningly good, a tightly written, powerful book about archaeology and Englishness'--Observer

'Is Sarah Moss the best British writer never nominated for the Booker? ... [Ghost Wall is] as brief and unsettling as a bolt of lightning ... [it] pins us to the page with creeping menace'--Daily Mail

'I love this book. Ghost Wall requires you to put your life on hold while you finish it. It draws you into its unusual world and, with quiet power and menace, keeps you there until the very last page. Silvie's story isn't one you will ever forget' --Maggie O'Farrell

'Exquisite... Moss has quietly, and it must be said remarkably quickly, been putting out some of the most interesting and carefully sculpted novels of recent years... [Ghost Wall] is her best novel yet... At a time in which we are thinking more closely than ever about questions of nationalism and tradition, about walls and what they signify, this is an important novel that wears its timeliness lightly'--Financial Times

'One of our foremost literary forensic anthropologists, excavating that which has long been covered over or covered up before realising it, newly realised, to the light of day... Moss's sensual writing recalls the late Helen Dunmore..'--New Statesman

'Over a staggeringly short distance... Moss creates and manipulates an atmosphere of extreme tension'--Observer

'I stayed up half the night gulping down Sarah Moss's slim, unnervingly tense novel. Ghost Wall has subtlety, wit, and the force of a rock to the head: an instant classic'--Emma Donoghue

'Moss's finely balanced novel combines a strong sense of the natural world with a growing atmosphere of menace, interspersed with wry humour'--The Mail on Sunday

'Moss's brevity is admirable, her language pristine. This story lingers, leaving its own ghosts, but with important lessons for the future of idealising the past'--Irish Times

'An amazing story ... disturbing and touching at the same time'--The Times

'Ghost Wall grabs you by the guts and never lets go. Dazzling'-- --Elizabeth Day

'Sarah Moss's concise, claustrophobic sixth novel concerns the perils of family life... Moss is very good at building empathy for Silvie through visceral, close-grained descriptions of nature... devastating... A sinister feeling hangs over Ghost Wall from the first chapter'--Spectator

'Moss is a sparse but evocative writer [and] in just 149 pages Moss does a remarkable job at building an engaging, textured world and Sylvie is a likeable heroine. You root for her - and she might just surprise you'--Evening Standard

'I am so envious of people who can write novels and fill them with so much'--The Times

'[A] subtly chilling new novel [...] the brevity of Ghost Wall is deceptive about the novel's scope'--TLS

'Eerie and gripping'--Bookseller

'A beautiful book...We will read it again and again for years to come until our copy is falling apart'--Domestic Sluttery

'Intense and menacing... The sort that's best read in one sitting'--Tatler

'[A] gripping and powerful work of fiction... Moss slowly ratchets up the tension... [and] handles it with a subtle and highly effective mixture of precision and ambiguity'-- --Scotland on Sunday

'Immerses you [...] and wont' let you go... Captivating'--Attitude

'heart-stopping'--Saga Magazine

'Moss is the author of a series of unsettling, beautifully strange novels and her latest [...] is no exception'--I Paper

'Thrum[s] with sonorous contemporary resonance... extraordinary... shockingly tense... this is a beautifully-written novel that builds tension, suspense and uneasiness ... [Moss'] finest yet... breath-taking'--New European

'Outstanding... The realities of prehistoric living are viscerally evoked... Grave and sophisticated, lit by flashes of wry humour, this is a drama that excavates our deepest instincts' -- --Country Life

About the Author

SARAH MOSS is a Professor at the University of Warwick. Ghost Wall is her sixth novel, following Cold Earth, Night Waking, Bodies of Light, Signs for Lost Children, The Tidal Zone & a memoir about living in Iceland, Names for the Sea. She has been shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize three times & the RSL Ondaatje prize once. She has written for the Guardian, New Statesman, Independent and BBC Radio & has been a reviewer on Radio 4 s Saturday Review. She was a guest curator at last year's Cheltenham Literary Festival. She lives in Coventry with her husband & two sons.

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1783784458
• ISBN 13: 9781783784455
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160