Steeped in a sense of ominous dread and rendered in precise, emotionally acute prose, Greengrass follows up the acclaimed Sight with the tale of a small band of individuals preparing for the onset of a slow-moving catastrophe.
Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2022
Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2021
'Crisis slid from distant threat to imminent probability and we tuned it out like static.'
Francesca is Caro's stepmother, and Pauly's mother. A scientist, she can see what is going to happen.
The high house was once her holiday home; now looked after by locals Grandy and Sally, she has turned it into an ark, for when the time comes. The mill powers the generator; the orchard is carefully pruned; the greenhouse has all its glass intact. Almost a family, but not quite, they plant, store seed, and watch the weather carefully.
A stunning novel of the extraordinary and the everyday, The High House explores how we get used to change that once seemed unthinkable, how we place the needs of our families against the needs of others - and it asks us who, if we had to, we would save.
Publisher: Swift Press
ISBN: 9781800750913
Number of pages: 288
Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
‘Greengrass steeps us deeply in her wild, watery setting … its prophetic vision fixes the attention’ - Daily Mail ‘Full of elegant, resonant sentences about human fallibility, complacency, selfishness and our unquenchable capacity for love’ - Sunday Times ‘This brave, important and exquisitely written novel is a frightening one. But even the darkest times are lit by moments of beauty and grace, and the reader is uplifted by Greengrass’s conviction that salvation lies not in competing with one another to survive but in uniting to help those we love’ - Sigrid Nunez
I read this in a single sitting. Powerful stuff! Jessie Greengrass writes beautifully about our changing world and family dynamic. I cannot recommend this enough
The High House by Jessie Greengrass is a poetic and purposeful novel. An intimate story of a coming apocalypse and a family forged in the midst of destruction and devastation. It follows Francesca, a scientist who has... More
The High House is such an immersive, lyrical read that I was spellbound from start to finish. Jessie's prose is soothing and thoughtful and the detailed descriptions of the setting stayed with me long after I... More
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