Ghost Wall

'I love this book. Put your life on hold while you finish it' Maggie O'Farrell A suspenseful and chilling novel of haunted landscapes and a teenage girl in danger... Seventeen-year-old Silvie is camping in rural Northumberland with her father and a group of archaeologists, who are attempting to uncover evidence of human sacrifice. As Silvie glimpses the possibility of freedom with the students - new female friendships and a sexual awakening - her difficult relationship with her overbearing father begins to deteriorate. As the feelings of dread build the haunting rites of the past begin to bleed into the present... '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 'An instant classic' Emma Donoghue 'I loved it' Bernardine Evaristo

'I love this book. Put your life on hold while you finish it' Maggie O'Farrell A suspenseful and chilling novel of haunted landscapes and a teenage girl in danger. Seventeen-year-old Silvie is camping in rural Northumberland with her father and a group of archaeologists, who are attempting to uncover evidence of human sacrifice. As Silvie glimpses the possibility of freedom with the students - new female friendships and a sexual awakening - her difficult relationship with her overbearing father begins to deteriorate. As the feelings of dread build the haunting rites of the past begin to bleed into the present... '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 'An instant classic' Emma Donoghue 'I loved it' Bernadine Evaristo

'I love this book. Put your life on hold while you finish it' Maggie O'Farrell A suspenseful and chilling novel of haunted landscapes and a teenage girl in danger... Seventeen-year-old Silvie is camping in rural Northumberland with her father and a group of archaeologists, who are attempting to uncover evidence of human sacrifice. As Silvie glimpses the possibility of freedom with the students - new female friendships and a sexual awakening - her difficult relationship with her overbearing father begins to deteriorate. As the feelings of dread build the haunting rites of the past begin to bleed into the present... '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 'An instant classic' Emma Donoghue 'I loved it' Bernardine Evaristo

'I love this book. Put your life on hold while you finish it' Maggie O'Farrell A suspenseful and chilling novel of haunted landscapes and a teenage girl in danger. Seventeen-year-old Silvie is camping in rural Northumberland with her father and a group of archaeologists, who are attempting to uncover evidence of human sacrifice. As Silvie glimpses the possibility of freedom with the students - new female friendships and a sexual awakening - her difficult relationship with her overbearing father begins to deteriorate. As the feelings of dread build the haunting rites of the past begin to bleed into the present... '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 'An instant classic' Emma Donoghue 'I loved it' Bernadine Evaristo

A Southern Living Best New Book of Winter 2019; A Refinery29 Best Book of January 2019; A Most Anticipated Book of 2019 at The Week, Huffington Post, Nylon, and Lit Hub ; An Indie Next Pick for January 2019 " Ghost Wall has subtlety, wit, and the force of a rock to the head: an instant classic." --Emma Donoghue, author of Room "A worthy match for 3 a.m. disquiet, a book that evoked existential dread, but contained it, beautifully, like a shipwreck in a bottle." --Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker A taut, gripping tale of a young woman and an Iron Age reenactment trip that unearths frightening behavior The light blinds you; there's a lot you miss by gathering at the fireside. In the north of England, far from the intrusions of cities but not far from civilization, Silvie and her family are living as if they are ancient Britons, surviving by the tools and knowledge of the Iron Age. For two weeks, the length of her father's vacation, they join an anthropology course set to reenact life in simpler times. They are surrounded by forests of birch and rowan; they make stew from foraged roots and hunted rabbit. The students are fulfilling their coursework; Silvie's father is fulfilling his lifelong obsession. He has raised her on stories of early man, taken her to witness rare artifacts, recounted time and again their rituals and beliefs--particularly their sacrifices to the bog. Mixing with the students, Silvie begins to see, hear, and imagine another kind of life, one that might include going to university, traveling beyond England, choosing her own clothes and food, speaking her mind. The ancient Britons built ghost walls to ward off enemy invaders, rude barricades of stakes topped with ancestral skulls. When the group builds one of their own, they find a spiritual connection to the past. What comes next but human sacrifice? A story at once mythic and strikingly timely, Sarah Moss's Ghost Wall urges us to wonder how far we have come from the "primitive minds" of our ancestors.

A Southern Living Best New Book of Winter 2019; A Refinery29 Best Book of January 2019; A Most Anticipated Book of 2019 at The Week, Huffington Post, Nylon, and Lit Hub ; An Indie Next Pick for January 2019 " Ghost Wall has subtlety, wit, and the force of a rock to the head: an instant classic." --Emma Donoghue, author of Room "A worthy match for 3 a.m. disquiet, a book that evoked existential dread, but contained it, beautifully, like a shipwreck in a bottle." --Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker A taut, gripping tale of a young woman and an Iron Age reenactment trip that unearths frightening behavior The light blinds you; there's a lot you miss by gathering at the fireside. In the north of England, far from the intrusions of cities but not far from civilization, Silvie and her family are living as if they are ancient Britons, surviving by the tools and knowledge of the Iron Age. For two weeks, the length of her father's vacation, they join an anthropology course set to reenact life in simpler times. They are surrounded by forests of birch and rowan; they make stew from foraged roots and hunted rabbit. The students are fulfilling their coursework; Silvie's father is fulfilling his lifelong obsession. He has raised her on stories of early man, taken her to witness rare artifacts, recounted time and again their rituals and beliefs--particularly their sacrifices to the bog. Mixing with the students, Silvie begins to see, hear, and imagine another kind of life, one that might include going to university, traveling beyond England, choosing her own clothes and food, speaking her mind. The ancient Britons built ghost walls to ward off enemy invaders, rude barricades of stakes topped with ancestral skulls. When the group builds one of their own, they find a spiritual connection to the past. What comes next but human sacrifice? A story at once mythic and strikingly timely, Sarah Moss's Ghost Wall urges us to wonder how far we have come from the "primitive minds" of our ancestors.