Sarah Moss' ‘Ghost Wall’ is a haunting masterpiece of concision

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss.

In 1954, William Golding wrote a book that challenged conventional thinking about the nature of education and civilisation. In Lord Of The Flies, a group of choir boys are stranded on a desert island and, instead of behaving like the well-behaved little gentlemen that they have been brought up to be, rapidly turn into a group of flesh-hungry savages.

I am put in mind of Golding’s massively influential book by the latest from Sarah Moss, a too-frequently overlooked writer when it comes to major awards and the resulting international recognition. Moss is a serious talent, as this short offering of just 150 pages amply confirms.