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The Schoolhouse

'Stylish, pacy and genuinely frightening' The Times

Sophie Ward

$22.99

Paperback

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English
Corsair
11 July 2023
'A compelling, fast-moving narrative . . . delivers real emotional impact' Telegraph

'A literary provocateur' Guardian

SHORTLISTED for the POLARI PRIZE 2023

WINNER of DIVA Magazine's 2023 'Author of the Year' Award

Isobel lives an isolated life in North London, where she works at a nearby library. She feels safe, so long as she keeps to her routines and doesn't let her thoughts stray too far into the past. But a newspaper photograph of a missing local schoolgirl and a letter from her old teacher send her spiralling and bring back the trauma of what happened years ago, when she was a pupil at The Schoolhouse.

The Schoolhouse was a 1970s experimental school where Isobel's days were a dark interplay of freedom and adventure, violence and fear. The only record of what happened there lies in the pages of her teenage diary.

The Schoolhouse taught Isobel that some truths must never be revealed, but as police investigating the missing girl start to ask uncomfortable questions, she realises the truth is coming for her - and it will put her, and everyone she has tried to protect, at risk.

From the Booker Prize-longlisted author of Love and Other Thought Experiments comes a masterful and gripping thriller about truth, silence, and the dead weight of the past.

By:  
Imprint:   Corsair
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 196mm,  Width: 126mm,  Spine: 24mm
Weight:   240g
ISBN:   9781472156303
ISBN 10:   1472156307
Pages:   304
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Sophie Ward is an actor and writer. Her debut novel, Love and Other Thought Experiments, was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020.

Reviews for The Schoolhouse: 'Stylish, pacy and genuinely frightening' The Times

The Schoolhouse is taut, gripping and intensely moving right until the very last page. I truly couldn't put Sophie Ward's beautifully written novel down -- Susannah Wise, author of This Fragile Earth The Schoolhouse is a real 'stand-out-from-the-crowd' book, with an absorbing plot from the get-go; part detective novel, part taut, cerebral thriller . . . A masterful rendition of the tensions and realities of human resilience and emotional frailty -- Laura Carlin, author of The Wicked Cometh A tense, taut drama that questions how childhood trauma affects adult behaviour -- Joanne Finney * Good Housekeeping * Ward proves she can construct a compelling, fast-moving narrative (with an extended action-packed denouement). What's best about her novels, however, is her gift for bringing characters to life, which means that whether her writing is disconcertingly strange or, as here, treads at times on over-familiar territory, it always delivers a real emotional impact. * The Telegraph * A taut, moody, intelligent thriller * The Daily Telegraph * Very creepy and very enjoyable -- Susie Goldsbrough * The Times *


  • Short-listed for Polari Prize 2023 (UK)

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