The Bass Rock

“A wondrous and disturbing novel…Observant, melodic, imaginative…. Wyld consistently entertains, juggling the pleasures of several different genres.” —The New York Times

“Gripping…. A haunted house of a novel, as intricately built as relentlessly ominous…. Wyld is so controlled and subtle a storyteller that her themes remain elegantly beneath the surface. What carries you along is the vivid description and an atmosphere of rising dread.” —Vogue

“An expertly layered, quietly suspenseful novel…. [Wyld is] a consummately sly storyteller.” —Wall Street Journal

The lives of three women weave together across centuries in the dazzling new book from the Granta Best of Young British Novelist and author of All the Birds, Singing.

Surging out of the sea, the Bass Rock has always borne witness to the lives that pass under its shadow on the Scottish mainland. And across the centuries, the fates of three women are inextricably linked to this place and to one another.

Sarah, accused of being a witch, is fleeing for her life.

Ruth, in the aftermath of the Second World War, is navigating a new marriage and the strange waters of the local community.

Six decades later, Viv, still mourning the death of her father, is cataloging Ruth’s belongings in the now-empty house.

As each woman’s story unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear that their choices are circumscribed, in ways big and small, by the men who seek to control them. But in sisterhood there is also the possibility of survival and a new way of life. Intricately crafted and compulsively readable, The Bass Rock burns bright with love and fury—a devastating indictment of violence against women and an empowering portrait of their resilience through the ages.