Hold Back the Night

The most gripping, emotional novel you'll read this year

Jessica Moor

$32.99

Paperback

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English

BONNIER
20 August 2024

Fiction & Literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

From the Observer debut novelist of the year, comes a blistering, heart-wrenching new novel of complicity and atonement, delving into one nurse's experience of the little-known history of conversion therapy and the heart-breaking betrayal of the AIDS crisis.

March 2020. Annie is alone in her house as the world shuts down, only the ghosts of her memories for company. But then she receives a phone call which plunges her deeper into the past.

1959. Annie and Rita are student nurses at Fairlie Hall mental hospital. Working long, gruelling hours, they soon learn that the only way to appease their terrifying matron is to follow the rules unthinkingly. But what is happening in the hospital's hidden side wards? And at what point does following the rules turn into complicity - and betrayal?

1983. Annie is reeling from the loss of her husband and struggling to face raising her daughter alone. Following a chance encounter, she offers a sick young man a bed for the night, a good deed that soon leads to another. Before long, she finds herself entering a new life of service - her home a haven for those who are cruelly shunned. But can we ever really atone?

The powerful and captivating new novel from the celebrated author of Keeper and Young Women, Hold Back the Night is Jessica Moor's most powerful and commercial book to date. A darkly compelling character-led novel, drawing on themes of complicity and betrayal, it is bursting with talking points and absolutely perfect for reading groups.

By: Jessica Moor
Imprint: BONNIER
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 425g
ISBN: 9781804181386
ISBN 10: 1804181382
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 20 August 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jessica Moor studied English at Cambridge before completing a Creative Writing MA at Manchester University. Moor was selected as one of the Observer's debut novelists of 2020, and her first novel, Keeper was chosen by the Sunday Times, Independent and Cosmopolitan as one of their top debuts of the year. Keeper was nominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize and an Edgar Award. Young Women is her second novel.

Reviews for Hold Back the Night: The most gripping, emotional novel you'll read this year

Beautifully written and authentic, this novel shines an unflinching light on the darkest episodes of recent medical history. Hold Back The Night will get under your skin and lodge itself in your heart. * Erin Kelly *