A disturbing snapshot perfectly drawn of a particular point in time, this book looks at the impact of covid on many different people.

Sarah Moss writes with such precision that she draws the essence of the different conflicts people are experiencing during lockdown.

It’s a book of reflection and reaction to specific circumstances, not a word is out of place and the writing doesn’t put a foot wrong.

I was totally drawn into the story and full of admiration as to how the characters and their dilemmas stay with you once you finish reading.

A poetic exploration of a very specific point in time, telling the story of the collective panic and fear we felt as COVID-19 spread across Britain and the experiences of Kate, a fell walker who considers her experiences of the pandemic so far. I just wish it had been a bit longer!

This is a beautifully-written book, as we'd expect from Sarah Moss. It's also wonderfully atmospheric and a study in isolation. Don't let its setting of the pandemic put you off - its use as a backdrop serves a real purpose and there are some images of the struggles people had during it that will stay with you. It's also a very engrossing read and you'll want to see what happens next. It's rare to see a book that combines a thrilling story with such gorgeous language but we have it here. I loved it.

This is a book based on the current pandemic and the circumstances of people’s lives and how they have become smaller and isolated.
As with all of Sarah Moss’s books she paints the characters in a detailed way enabling the reader to feel as they they know them. It’s a brief novel but full to the brim and it’s uncertain throughout which way things will pan out.
One of the main stand out features of all of her novels is how nature themes are weaves throughout.
Expectations were that this would be an uncomfortable read but for anyone choosing to shy away from a read that feels a little too close to home I’d thoroughly recommend me as it leaves a sense of community and that we are all finding it difficult in varying ways.

The Fell is set in in the Lake District in November 2020 during the pandemic. The country isn’t quite in lockdown but lives are restricted by enforced periods of isolation for covid contacts and shielding for the vulnerable. This short novel focuses on the lives and internal thoughts of just four characters, Kate, a single mother and her teenage son Matt, their neighbour Alice who is shielding due to having had cancer and Rob, a member of the volunteer mountain rescue team.
I found this to be a slow burner and it took me a few chapters to get used to the writing style and this way of telling a story. Once I was into it though, I was hooked. Sarah Moss really gets inside the heads of her characters and each of them feels incredibly real. The little random thoughts that skitter across our brains are brilliantly captured. The landscape is also vividly described and becomes as much a part of the story as the characters. The novel definitely captures the isolation and frustration of the pandemic and I totally empathised with Kate’s need to get out and away from her home. The characters became so real that I was slightly frustrated by the ending as I wanted to know more about what happened next. I haven’t read anything by Sarah Moss before but will definitely go and seek out her previous work.
Thank you to Net Galley and the Publishers, Pan Macmillan, for allowing me to read this advance copy.

Written as a stream of consciousness, this follows the despair of Kate who breaks out after suffering ‘cabin fever’ of sorts during a period of Self Isolation/quarantine during a UK Covid19 lockdown. All so relatable in content and style of continuous rambling thoughts, we are easily able to empathise with Kate’s predicament, and also ( her son) Matt’s realisation that he may have put his own mother through similar worries when he has left the house without being explicit about his whereabouts, and being at times unreachable on his phone.
The ‘small ‘ scale of Kate’s breakout is exacerbated by the fact that she did not return by nightfall and fearing the worst, the mountain rescue team are sent out to search for her.
A book which I enjoyed, and flew through in a day, I would like to thank #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review

A very powerful read and it really got me thinking. I am a hiker myself and have hiked a fair few fells myself however this ground to a halt with the Pandemic.

I resigned myself to not heading to the Lakes but I completely get that overwhelming desire to escape for the solitude, the sense of space, the natural surroundings.

The novel is exactly this. A desire to escape from the confines of Covid self-isolation and hit the hills. Kate, one of the characters does exactly this and this novel explores the ramifications of this action on her and other characters - her son, neighbour, mountain rescue.

I was totally taken by this book and I liked the mainly internal reflections and character portraits.

It is a recommended read for me. And an important (post?) Pandemic read.

I have read and greatly enjoyed all Sarah Moss's books so was delighted to be given this ARC by Netgalley. I think her work should be more widely known - she is just as good as Ali Smith. But when I started reading this, I hesitated - not sure that I'm quite ready yet for pandemic fiction or, after the wonderful "Ducks, Newburyport", stream of consciousness. But I was swept up in the lyrical descriptions of the landscape and the characters soon came to life and became important to me, in the way that well-written characters do. But this is a short book and, although the ending is particularly well done, I wanted more.

It's N0vember 2020 in England's Peak District and the country is in national lockdown. Kate and her teenage son Matt are part way through a two-week self isolation period as Kate has been a close contact with a Covid positive case. Kate struggles with the confinement and breaks her confinement by going for a walk up on the fell. She reasons that she won't come in contact with other people there and will be back before anyone notices she's gone. However, she falls, injuring herself badly and is unable to make it back home.

The story unfolds in a stream of consciousness and alternates between the interior worlds of Kate, Matt, their neighbour Alice and mountain rescue volunteer Rob. I initially found it a bit difficult to get into this, but once Kate steps outside her home I found it so compelling and tense. Over time it becomes apparent why Kate took such a risk. Its a measure of how well crafted this book is that I never felt angry with Kate while reading this, despite the consequences for herself and others. Her action, while foolish, made sense.

This is a very evocative depiction of life in a very specific place during the pandemic and will no doubt feel far too raw for some to read about while the pandemic continues. I found this thoughtful and rewarding. This is now the third of Sarah Moss's novels I've read (after Night Waking and Ghost Wall) and I look forward to more.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan Picador for this ARC.

CW: injury, mental ill health/suicide, cancer, domestic violence

4.5

It’s early evening in November 2020, Kate should be self isolating for fourteen days but she’s feeling claustrophobic and the lure of the Peak District Fells is proving hard to resist. Her elderly neighbour Alice sees her leave her property but it takes a while for her teenage son Matt to realise that she’s broken the quarantine rules. The story is told from several perspectives.

I love the way that Sarah Moss writes and have been very impressed with her all novels and this one is equally impressive. Yes, it’s a pandemic novel but it’s unlike others I’ve read as it deals with the reality of lockdowns, the impact on personalities of isolation and the different way that people experience and react to it. It’s beautifully written, it’s extremely reflective making you think. Matt’s teenage sections are so well constructed as his random thoughts flit from one thing to another, especially food (well he is a teen) but this changes to a feeling of powerlessness which is overwhelming. Alice's thoughts, her vulnerabilities, the irritations, her ways of keeping deeper musings and concerns at bay, her care, concerns and kindness are very well done too. You do feel as if you are inside their thoughts and it seems almost natural that you are. Kate’s claustrophobia, her reflections on life before and in the now come across powerfully as she attempts to distract herself with household tasks and worthless items but she becomes more and more unsettled and imprisoned. You feel her relief at being outdoors but then witness a change which becomes incredibly tense and suspenseful. Her painful experience elicits deep reflection, it’s very powerful especially as the storytelling takes an almost supernatural turn with some very clever symbolism. Throughout it all the brooding Derbyshire Peak District landscape allures with its beautiful wildness but flatters to deceive as it’s reveals its potential danger to the unwary.

Overall, this is without question one of the best pandemic inspired novellas. It’s immersive reading and very thought provoking and written in a visually stunning way so scenes come alive. This is one to savour and remember

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Pan McMillan, Picador for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

I was one of those who had no intention of reading any books set in the time of the COVID pandemic. Something made me trust it in the hands of Sarah Moss though and I am so glad I did. Although set in what would appear to be late Autumn / early Winter of 2020, it is a novel that deals with the effects of isolation and quarantine than the virus itself.
Sarah's beautiful prose captures the anxiety, the loneliness, the anguish and the claustrophobia of lockdown. Set in the Peak District, Late and her teenage son Matt are self isolating after a potential contact with someone who has contracted COVID. Kate is hugely struggling with her mental health, with her workplace shut, her 4 walls closing in on her, and decides to risk a walk in the deserted hills, confident that she won't be spotted, and that it is so isolated that no risk to her meeting another soul. However she does not bank on falling on the hills in the dark. Alone. With no one knowing she has left the house, or where she has gone.
Told from the perspective of Matt, Kate, the mountain rescuer Rob as well as Kates neighbour Alice - this is a tense read that I could have easily inhaled in one go - but tried desperately to savour - as it was that good.
Highly recommend to all - especially those like me who thought that this was never a subject we wanted to read about.

Two mothers live next to each other in a small community on the edge of England's Peak District – a place in the centre of the country with few amenities, even less mobile phone service but a welter of marvellous, rugged, hilly/boggy, ugly/pretty, up/down/up landscapes. But this being the early 2020s and England stuck under spurious lockdown, one of them – an outdoorsy type in an enforced spell of unemployment, and not used to being housebound at all – has gone out for a hike far too late in the day, and of course not returned. Left behind are her teenaged son who at least has some idea how to fend for himself, the neighbour, and a male volunteer for the mountain rescue service – a single father forced to abandon the weekend of quality time promised to his daughter of a broken marriage.

Now, when it comes to a song from a band I like responding to current politics, you just know the ideas, themes and references will be out of date two albums down the line. This also is an immediate response, to what it goes without saying – and one certainly inherently more readable than those Ali Smith anti-Brexit tirades, but not a book to be read ten, twenty years from now. As a book for today, it is also rather too gloomy. If anything the book lapses on describing the Peaks and concentrates on the hilly/boggy, ugly/ugly, up/down/up landscape of Covid Britain, in ways that are very fresh and recognisable, but also perhaps too close to the bone.

The stand-up, delivering such a line, will respond with the ready-set quip "Too early?" Well, possibly, in this case. With people still wearing face nappies – by choice?! – and expecting the same of people working for them in hospitality and the arts (my areas of employment), lockdown only halfway left us. And for all the effort in putting positivity into the (in my mind, bodged) ending here, the book remains a dark look at an ongoing dark time. The author's thoughts on lockdown would appear to be disguised, in that they're shared equally between the two women; there's a bit of Ted Hughesian magic realism, were such a thing possible; the writing has to be modern and in long, multi-clause sentences and with no attributive speech marks around any of the dialogue; and I'm still not convinced this edified in any way, the Covid times so bloody resilient and hard to shrug off. Still, this being a short novel, I cannot object too much to the company it provided. But in being so blatantly full of now-ness, it really lacked any aspect of being fun.

I loved reading this. It was lyrical and moving and thought-provoking. The reflections on lockdown and life and humans' ability to cope through periods of isolation are given a new dimension because of the way these passages are written. Moss almost breaths life into the airless room of 2020. She captures beautifully the multitudes of feelings and reactions that people had to life through the pandemic in the UK. This is the first book I have read by Sarah Moss, but I will definitely be seeking out more.
I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy via NetGalley.

Moss' signature detailed interior lives of her characters comes to life in this book centred around an incident effecting a few residents of a small village in the Peak District during a period of lockdown due to Covid-19. Just as with her hit Summerwater, she focuses on a small selection of characters but manages to present a sort of 'state of the nation' novel in a snap shot of time.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The characters are brilliantly drawn and though their situations might be bleak at times the whole thing is infused with a humour that had me laughing out loud at times. Thank you to the author, the publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this brilliant book before its publication date.

Writing a book about the pandemic, especially whilst still in the middle of it, is something that can be difficult logistically, not least in terms of not making your book feel hackneyed, over-done, or cliched.

Sarah Moss manages to avoid this, and delivers a short, tight novel that profoundly examines what living in a pandemic looks like.

Kate, worn out from over-thinking and the terror of isolation, has a lot on her mind- if she is infectious, what her job will look like when things go back to normal, whether she will have a job, if she can afford food, and if she can survive to the end of it all.

The language of the book cleverly mirrors this, with her sentences becoming increasingly lengthy, disjointed and distracted, until she snaps and goes for a walk, in the middle of the night, alone, without telling a soul.

Her son, understandably, begins to panic, and what emerges is suddenly a rescue mission, with a narrative camera that flits between several different characters, as we watch how a small community reacts to this 'disappearance'- panic, fear, worries about nosy neighbours, the financial fears of police fines, and despondency.

Form and function match perfectly here, as the language becomes even more disjointed and frantic, as our field of vision slowly widens to include the rescue team and other villagers.

This book is bold and uncomfortable, and is so well observed that I think it perfectly captures the bizarre world we have found ourselves in over the last 18 months,

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

trigger warning
<spoiler> pandemic </spoiler>
dnf on page 28

A woman who is supposed to be in quarantine can't stand it anymore and sneaks out, goes on a walk. Only a walk! She thinks. Nobody will even see me!
But then she falls.

You might have noticed that this has no star rating attached to it.
There is a simple reason behind it: It's stream of consciousness which might be fun to read, but is very inacessible for neurodivergent folks. My depression brain drifts off again and again and again and I won't retain anything I'll read. I would have to force myself for every single page.
Normally, I'd say yes, sure, it's on the publishing. <i>But</i>. This is by Sarah Moss, of whom I haven't read a book yet, but the reviews lead me to believe this is how she writes. So I can understand why the netgalley page did not include any information on this, and I'll refrain from star-rating this book. However, I don't see why my Netgalley ratio should suffer because of this.

As far as I got, the characters were fun. Threedimensional, and I found myself a lot in the struggles they faced in lockdown. In isolation. With self distancing, the uncertainty, the change of routines.
And I still think that the plot sounds amazing, so I'll just hope it will be adapted one day and I can watch that instead.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

Note: I only picked star ratings here on netgalley and not on GR.

Summerwater was perhaps the novel of 2020 which best echoed the restlessness and latent tension of my lockdown experience. So it's not particularly surprisingly that Moss should follow it with The Fell, a novel all about the claustrophobia of lockdown.

As always, Moss' storytelling is slick and compelling, four characters' streams of consciousness pouring into one another across the space of one night. Like Kate, lost on the fell, as a reader you share a sense of groping your way through the dark, reliant on the narrators' meandering thoughts to pull you through. The ending is perhaps not as satisfactory as it could have been, a little too abrupt, but the journey there is gripping.

Slick and compelling, The Fell is an exemplary piece of lockdown literature.

This book was beautifully written and haunted me. It so perfectly captured all our uncertainty, frustration, fear and anxiety over Covid. I felt it was so descriptive I was almost out there on the fell with the main character. I just loved it.

In "The Fell" Sarah Moss’s effective at capturing the claustrophobia, uncertainty and isolation so central to the experience of Britain’s Covid-19 pandemic at its height. Her novel’s set in the Peak District, an area where a fantasy of chocolate-box, rural England rubs up against stretches of unexpected, rugged wilderness. Into this landscape Moss inserts countercultural, single-parent Kate and teenage son Matt struggling to get by, but living cheek-by-jowl with wealthy, pensioner Alice, a widow, shielding because of cancer. And alongside them is Rob, a mountain rescue volunteer. A small cluster of people separated by a strict lockdown who are equally, suddenly, thrust together by a single transgressive act. Moss’s narrative unfolds over one day and night. It’s dominated by long, winding sentences, chains of associations, digressions and dead ends, as Moss moves from one character’s perspective to another. Much of the book's taken up with interior monologues reflecting the solitude and distance imposed by lockdown, the exhausting, everyday mechanics of avoiding infection.

Moss’s characters aren’t just connected by proximity, or even by the process of living through unparalleled crisis, but by an underlying sense of peril, both immediate, domestic and more broadly existential. Their thoughts shifting from mundane commentary or overt distractions to their keen awareness of the instability of everything around them, political divisions, fractured society, and the spectre of climate change. There are moments too of coming together, acts of kindness, shared concerns. It’s a depiction of a reality that will be familiar to many, although there are also a number of absent voices: marginal and seen only in the distance, the homeless and displaced, figures like Kate’s neighbour Samira who puts in a puzzlingly brief appearance. I was reminded at times of Michael Cunningham’s "The Hours" similarly preoccupied with questions of connection, and how to live, how to deal with the weight of days but – although I find aspects of Cunningham’s vision deeply flawed - "The Fell" is less richly descriptive, less thoughtful in its stance. Moss’s story’s almost too realistic at times, preserving rather than creatively reinventing the territory it covers. Teenage Matt often seems quite peripheral, a minor function of plot, Alice is probably the most well-realised of the group, but even here there’s a tendency to edge towards cliché. Although the slightly surreal encounter between Kate and a raven, both alone in the November night, is an interesting attempt at disrupting this rather conventional story, it felt more of a gesture than anything else, it didn’t have the eerie mythic force of the more satisfying elements of earlier books like "Cold Earth." But even though this wasn’t the compulsive read I’d hoped for, I still found it engaging enough to hold my attention.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Pan Macmillan, Picador for an arc.

I read The Fell about a year after the date that it was set and it brought back so many memories of the winter of 2020 - the uncertainty and the unrelenting bleakness of the pandemic (She had me at the skipping rope!) Moss makes art of the small descriptions in her novels, and this is no exception.
The characters and experiences over one evening are described with compassion and insight. Matt, his Mum Kate, their neighbour Alice (probably my favourite) and a search and rescue volunteer Rob are all believable and likeable.
This short novel is a quick but significant read that I definitely recommend. I was lucky enough to read it on a sunny beach in Portugal, but it had no trouble transporting me to the Peak District.
Thank you to the author Sarah Moss, her publishers and #NetGalley foe the opportunity to read and review this lovely book.