Sarah Hall: Critical Essays - Paperback

by Elke D'Hoker (Editor), Melanie Ebdon (Contribution by), Natalie Riley (Contribution by)

Sarah Hall's fame as a writer has been rising steadily since her debut novel, Haweswater, appeared in 2002. With each succeeding novel she has broken new ground and captivated new audiences, and her fifth, The Wolf Border, received international acclaim. The essays in this collection - the first book-length study of Hall's work to be made available to academic and non-academic readers - bear witness to her originality and versatility. They situate Hall's work within wider intellectual and literary traditions, British and international contexts, and offer an essential guide to an essential writer.

'This illuminating collection offers an overdue scholarly appraisal of Sarah Hall's fictional oeuvre to date. The essays explore questions of genre, style, national and devolutionary politics, feminism, environmentalism, and survival. Particular attention is paid to the creaturely human animals that populate Hall's fiction and the visceral, subcutaneous vitalism that unspools settled notions of species and subjectivity in her work. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in this important contemporary British writer.'

Caroline Edwards, Birkbeck, University of London

'In this wide-ranging and comprehensive collection, Beaumont and D'hoker have assembled an impressive range of critics and essays on a writer whose reputation in literary studies has been gradually building over the last two decades ... Sarah Hall: Critical Essays will help to cement Hall's place in the ranks of the best in contemporary literature and achieves what all good literary criticism should - it takes you back to the fiction with fresh eyes and new perspectives.'

Nick Bentley, Keele University