'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.

A masterclass in the art of the short, unnerving novel; a story of forbidden borders, haunted landscapes and bodies in danger.

About the Author
Sarah Moss is the author of the novels Cold Earth, Night Waking, Bodies of Light, Signs for Lost Children and The Tidal Zone. She has been shortlisted for The Wellcome Book Prize three times as well as the RSL Ondaatje Prize for her non-fiction account of living in Iceland; Names For the Sea: Strangers in Iceland. Three of her books have been Mumsnet Book club choices. She is professor of Creative Writing at Warwick University.

Reviews
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 -- Peter Kemp * 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 -- Sarah Crown * 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 -- Lucy Scholes * The Independent *
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 *
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 *
Stunningly good, a tightly written, powerful book about archaeology and Englishness -- Alex Preston * 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 -- Anthony Cummins * Daily Mail *
Grippingly eerie * Observer *
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
'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 brevity is admirable, her language pristine. This story lingers, leaving its own ghosts, but with important lessons for the future of idealising the past -- Sinead Gleeson * Irish Times *
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, author * The Miniaturist *
Ghost Wall grabs you by the guts and never lets go. Dazzling -- Elizabeth Day
An amazing story ... disturbing and touching at the same time -- Maggie O'Farrell * The Times *
A beautiful book...We will read it again and again for years to come until our copy is falling apart * Domestic Sluttery *
[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 -- Roger Cox * Scotland on Sunday *
Eerie and gripping * Bookseller *
Moss's finely balanced novel combines a strong sense of the natural world with a growing atmosphere of menace, interspersed with wry humour -- Anthony Gardner * The Mail on Sunday *
Over a staggeringly short distance... Moss creates and manipulates an atmosphere of extreme tension... as the story edges towards its climax, Moss appears to collapse layers of history, to render skin and knife and rope identical across millennia. What provokes and perpetuates that capacity for harm, and what powers a mystical belief in its propitiatory value, remains eerily unclear, but no less urgent a concern for us than for our ghostly forebears -- Alex Clark * Observer *
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... -- Catherine Taylor * New Statesman *
I'm a great fan of Sarah Moss's work; she combines poetic sensibility with great storytelling... Moss is brilliant on atmosphere -- John Boyne * Metro *
I am so envious of people who can write novels and fill them with so much -- Jessie Burton * The Times *
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 -- Charlie Connelly * New European *
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 -- Susannah Butter * Evening Standard *
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 *
[A] subtly chilling new novel [...] the brevity of Ghost Wall is deceptive about the novel's scope -- Rohan Maitzen * TLS *
Intense and menacing... The sort that's best read in one sitting -- Francesca Carington * Tatler *
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 -- Mary Miers * Country Life *
[An] intensely charged and menacing little book... Brief and entirely compelling -- Best Halloween Reads * Metro *
Sarah Moss combines her research interests in food, place and material culture to good effect -- Lucy Whetman * Irish Examiner *
Ghost Wall is a masterclass in the "less is more" style of writing, creating unbearable tension right up to the violent climax....Moss tackles patriarchy, misogyny and the abuse of power with understated skill, and collapses the millennia to reveal an eternal problem... Succinct and sublime -- Doug Johnstone * Big Issue London *
An intense and menacing book - the sort that's best read in one sitting... slim, unnerving -- Best New Books for Autumn * Tatler *
Moss' tale unfolds against a richly described natural landscape, where her interrogations of class, power and privilege reach an alarming crescendo * AnOther Magazine *
This divided country's most urgent novelist. Her themes: the cycles of history, male absurdity, the forms female subversion may take, in irony, sickness and sacrifice. It helps that she's absurdly topical, and that she's funny... Ghost Wall is the shorter, spikier companion piece to her previous novel The Tidal Zone -- Selected by Daniel Swift as a book of the year * Spectator *
Class and sexual tensions mount in a taut tale alive with intelligence and sensuousness -- Peter Kemp * Sunday Times *
A Brexity tale to send shivers down your spine... short, potent -- Rebecca Rose * Financial Times *
A spellbinding tale awaits within this slender novel -- Best books of the year selected by Susan Swarbrick and Teddy Jamieson * Herald *
Slim but intensely powerful -- Book of the Year selected by Justine Jordan * Guardian *
Sarah Moss's Ghost Wall characteristically interweaves the distant past and the immediate present. The author has a gift for taking us back in time in a mixture of historical fiction, ghost story and sharp contemporary observation... Moss's feel for ancient landscape is keen, but it's always a relief in this narrative to sneak off to Spar with its multi-packs of Hula Hoops and fun-sized Mars Bars. Moss paces her story well -- Book of the Year selected by Margaret Drabble * TLS *
A tale of modern-day violence steeped in the shadow of prehistoric horror, will chill the soul...Moss is...an expert at atmosphere, harnessing the very particular beauty of Northumberland in ways that are at once breathtaking and claustrophobic -- Book Chat Choice with Claire Allfree * Metro *
Overlooked by the prizes that deserve[s] wider readership: Sarah Moss's compelling tale of archaeology and toxic masculinity -- Alex Preston * Observer *
A small but powerful novel that will blow you away -- Style List: 29 brilliant books as chosen by Florence Welch's book club * Stylist *
A short, sharp shock of novel, set on a Northumberland dig in the 1980s, where ancient violence and contemporary abuse slowly collide to produce an act of singular horror... [this] is one of her best yet -- Claire Allfree * Metro *
A masterful piece of writing that cements Moss's reputation as one of our best novelists...intensely immersive * Prospect *
Slim but intensely powerful -- Justine Jordan * Guardian Weekly *
A taut thriller, widely acclaimed as one of last year's best books * Financial Times *
Sobering and unforgettable * Kensington & Chelsea Today *
A timely, tiny explosive package of a book... compelling * Tablet *
A masterful piece of writing that cements Moss's reputation as one of our best novelists... intensely immersive -- Sian Norris * Prospect *
[A] devastating novella * Guardian *
Stunned. I was blown away... definitely worth your time and a read...what a great story it is * iNews *


Awards
Long-listed for Women's Prize for Fiction 2019 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781783784455
Author Sarah Moss
Format Hardback
Page Count 160
Imprint Granta Books
Publisher Granta Books
Weight(grams) 229g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 9mm