REVIEWS Fiction

THE FELL

by Sarah Moss, Picador, priced £12.99, ebook £8.49

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It may feel too soon to be reading a ‘lockdown’ book, but it’s funny how much you forget. The Fell adeptly transports you back to that strange limbo – whether you want it to or not.

It follows single mum Kate who is supposed to be isolating, but takes a walk; Matt, her teenage son; their neighbour, comfortable, shielding Alice; and volunteer mountain rescuer Rob. Flitting between their perspectives, they each grapple with the familiar ethical conundrums, yearnings and anxieties the pandemic sprung on all of us.

Sarah Moss is typically witty and meticulous at observing the neuroses of people, but for a short book, it is a bit of a slog. It’s possibly one to revisit when Covid doesn’t still feel quite so present and consuming.

LILY: A TALE OF REVENGE by Rose Tremain, Chatto & Windus, £16.99, ebook £9.99

HHIII It’s hard not to shiver when reading Rose Tremain’s latest offering, set in bleak and dirty Victorian London. Lily’s life seems destined for misery: she’s abandoned to the Foundling Hospital as a baby and after a brief happy spell at a

country farm, spends most of her childhood at the wicked hands of the nurses, later to lead a lonely existence as a wig maker.

The main point of tension is Lily is a criminal, but the narrative works strangely, meaning we find out about the victim of her crime about halfway through the book without much suspense, and she spends the rest of the time agonising over her actions.

Unfortunately, this takes away much of the drama, making for a slightly dull read. Tremain builds up a fearsome picture of Victorian London – it’s a shame she didn’t provide the plot to match.