Sarah Moss is a novelist, travel writer and academic, teaching in the University of Warwick’s Writing Programme. She’s written five novels, The Tidal Zone (Granta, 2016), Signs for Lost Children (Granta, 2015), Bodies of Light (Granta, 2014), Night Waking (Granta, 2011) and Cold Earth (Granta, 2009).
Ghost Wall, published September 2018, is a brilliantly realised and utterly mesmerising novella. When a group of people come together to re-enact Iron Age life there’s a slow spiralling down into the threat of real violence.
At the beginning of the story the (historic) ritual killing of a young girl is graphic and utterly terrifying, setting the scene for an underlying sense of dread that permeates the book. There’s also humour through the contrast of the ‘soft southerners’ from the local university reluctantly dressing up in hand-woven tunics and trying to live as hunter-gatherers (but supplementing their starvation diet with sweets and Coke); while the young northern girl (through whose eyes we see the story) lives with a father obsessed by the Iron Age: she and her mother have to take the holiday completely seriously. Dialogue is sharp and witty and the descriptions excellent. This really is a book that’s hard to put down. A gripping novella.
Five Star rating *****
Ali Thurm 