6. Ghost Wall – Sarah Moss
I literally could not put this down and was up most of last night reading it. This is a short but powerful novel, and Sarah Moss cranks up the tension all the way up to the satisfying ending.
It’s a simple enough story: 17 year old Sylvie and her parents are taking part in an archeological re-enactment of the Iron Age. Also taking part are a middle aged Professor and three of his students, with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
Sylvie’s overbearing Father is an Iron Age superfan, her Mum not so much. It becomes clear neither Sylvie or her Mother have much choice about whether they take part in these activities or not. They spend the enactment hunter- gathering, with Sylvie’s put upon Mother trying to rustle up something edible from the unappetising roots and berries they find and sleeping in a faithfully recreated Iron Age hut. It’s midsummer, and the stifling weather and the remote setting are both used brilliantly to heighten the tension and create a sense of forboding.
Men and women quickly revert to traditional, stereotyped roles with Sylvie’s Father and the Professor hunting and playing with animal skulls, while Sylvie and Molly are sent to endlessly to look for edible leaves and roots and Sylvie’s Mother is left to languish by the campfire like a slave and wash the other participants clothes. The message I received is – some things never change.
I’ve read a couple of Sarah Moss’s other novels and this was quite different in style. Told in the first person, almost as a stream of consciousness, it has an immediacy which pulls the reader in and is very convincing. For such a short novel this has so much to say about how human beings treat each other in communities old and new. Highly recommended!