PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Rachelle Atalla is a fiction writer and editor based in Glasgow, who previously worked as a community pharmacist for a decade. Thankfully she has yet to be locked in a bunker, but there is still time. Her short stories have been published widely in literary journals and in 2018 her story Milk was highly commended in the Costa Short Story Award. She is also the co-editor of New Writing Scotland, and recently she completed Scottish Film and Talent Network's Write4film programme and Scottish Shorts development scheme; her short film Trifle was commissioned by SFTN and BFI, and will be released later in the year. The Pharmacist is her first novel.
A compulsive, claustrophobic but wonderfully compassionate read, beautifully written and set within a brilliantly realised world. Rachelle Atalla is a major talent and I can't wait to see where her mind goes next * Kirstin Innes, author of Scabby Queen * An unflinching portrayal of what we might all be capable of, Atalla's stunning debut is essential reading for our times * Helen Sedgwick, author of Where the Missing Gather * Atalla's speculative literary thriller debut draws you in with its mounting sense of tension, disquiet and desperation * CultureFly * There are shades of George Orwell in this stunning writing debut, but Rachelle Atalla's voice is highly original. And wholly her own * The Herald * This horrendously claustrophobic, utterly absorbing debut. The fiercely controlled narrative beautifully translates the horrendous grip of dismal routines and tiny, stolen pleasures * Daily Mail * Sitting somewhere on the spectrum between Paul Auster's heart-rending In the Country of Last Things and Bong Joon-ho's pulse-thumping film Snowpiercer, The Pharmacist is a slow-burn nightmare about how ordinary human decency gets eroded - and also how it perseveres * The Times * Rachelle Atalla is obviously a talented and gifted writer * On Magazine * Reminiscent of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, this unsettling story is a nightmare for our times of end-of-the-world prepping, increased nuclear insecurity and political inequality * Guardian * A breathtaking, tense debut. ***** * The Sun * It's really remarkable how she makes this bland, bleak, limited world so vivid and engrossing * SFX * Rachelle Atalla's debut is a thought-provoking addition to the post-apocalyptic genre * Press Association * The twists and turns in this brilliantly written, post-apocalyptic tale make for compulsive reading * Woman's Weekly * Atalla nails the atmosphere of claustrophobia and brings this world to life convincingly, as well as fostering sympathy for her protagonist, despite her flaws. This debut author is one to watch * The Sunday Times * Dystopian fiction, yes, but so much more. This book forces its readers to consider what it means to be good or evil, what motivates us to act as we do, and what matters to us in the end. A wonderful mix of tense drama and provocative ideas, I loved it * Elissa Soave, author of Ginger and Me * The Pharmacist is the perfect dystopian novel. Post-apocalyptic fiction masterfully handled. Addictive, claustrophobic, tense. I'm obsessed with this novel. Easily in my top reads this year * Chloe Timms, author of The Seawomen * The Pharmacist is a confident debut, in which Rachelle Atalla fully lives up to the promise of her New Writers Award . . . This literary thriller is highly original, asking difficult questions about morality and motherhood. And its claustrophobic atmosphere perfectly reflects the setting. * The List * Rachelle Atalla's elegant debut novel is a compelling account of a society whose rigid inhumanity is pierced with glimmers of hope * Daily Mail *
