“It comes apart in your hands and you realise you were holding pieces because it was never whole”

With her accutely perceptive, sensitive fiction, Sarah Moss has been quietly building up a reputation as one of the best British novelists writing today. Described by The Independent 'as a new kind of state-of-the-nation novel', her latest book, The Tidal Zone, may be her best yet. We caught up with Moss to discuss tackling the aftermath of near-tragedy and the integral part storytelling plays in how we navigate our lives.

Waterstones Online’s Martha Greengrass considers the legacy of Julian Barnes’ writing and how his novel, The Noise of Time, continues to challenge our concepts of time, art and what it is to be human.

Sarah Moss is currently an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Warwick and has previously penned four novels: Cold Earth, Night Waking, Bodies of Light and Signs for Lost Children, as well as two works of non-fiction. Night Waking is a blackly comic account of early motherhood and her new novel The Tidal Zone is a companion piece that focuses on parenting teenagers. Full of narrative surprises, The Tidal Zone has been described as ‘a remarkable, passionate, funny and beautifully furious book, full of love, history, justice and tenderness.’ (A. L. Kennedy)

Read an extract from Sarah Moss' Bodies of Light, shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize.