I enjoyed Sarah Moss’s best-selling short novel, Ghost Wall, 2018, a chilling story which focused on an iron age enactment weekend, where one character’s obsession with authenticity infects the whole group, and highlights the historical roots of misogyny, domestic abuse and the class system. It’s political but also poetic. As is Ripeness, her ninth novel. … More Ripeness – a review
Free Love, published January 2022, covers ground that will be familiar to fans of Tessa Hadley’s consistently brilliant novels and short stories. Her skill lies in the subtle way she dissects her characters’ inner lives, exposing their fears and desires. I read an advance copy courtesy of Net Galley and wasn’t disappointed. After struggling with … More Free love
thank you so much, Joanna for this fab review! by Joanna Clark Ali Thurm’s debut novel, One Scheme of Happiness, is an extraordinary and extraordinarily skilled piece of story-telling. The narrator and main protagonist, Helen Farrish, at first seems almost deliberately dull and self-effacing; very matter-of-fact. In new-found freedom, following the death of the mother for … More “But that wasn’t how I remembered it…”
From the Waterstones website… I’m thrilled with this review of my novel. Thank you, Paul! Paperback edition by Paul Barry Ali Thurm writes with delicate skill and mischievous wit to create a tale coloured with both the light and the shadow of passionate obsession. I found myself quickly sucked into the manoeuvrings of her gently drawn characters … More What a debut!
Ali Thurm 