The Fell

From Sarah Moss, the Sunday Times bestselling author of Summerwater and Ghost Wall, comes a tense and revelatory page-turner about the consequences of isolation during lockdown.

'I gulped The Fell down in one sitting' – Emma Donoghue

'Her work is as close to perfect as a novelist's can be' – The Times

At dusk on a November evening in 2020, Kate slips out of her garden gate and turns up the hill. In the middle of two weeks of Covid quarantine, she just can't take the confinement any more. The moor will be deserted at this time, and nobody need ever know.

But Kate's neighbour Alice sees her leaving and Matt, Kate's son, soon realizes she's missing. What began as a furtive walk has turned into a mountain rescue operation as Kate, who planned only a quick breath of open air, falls and badly injures herself.

Unbearably suspenseful, witty and wise, The Fell asks probing questions about the world since the first Covid lockdown, and the place it was before. This intense masterpiece is a story about compassion, kindness and the lengths we must go to survive.

'Gripping, thoughtful and revelatory' – Paula Hawkins

'An intense masterpiece and one of my best books of the year' – Rachel Joyce

'One of our very best contemporary novelists' – Independent