Ash - by Louise Wallace (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A dazzlingly original and bleakly funny debut novel that follows one harried working mother before and after a devastating weather event, capturing the everyday wonders and infuriating indignities of mothering in a time of ecological crisis.

Thea spends her days among stubborn animals, many of which are massive or in pain, but they're not really what's causing her to feel overwhelmed. A vet at a midsized rural practice, she's been called back from her maternity leave early to find herself awash in meetings, family mealtimes, farm visits, her boss's search for legal loopholes and the constant care of her much-loved children, Eli and Lucy. Her husband would like to know what he should get his mother for her birthday, which she's had to remind him is next week--Calm down, she tells the reader, I'm not going to have an affair. This is a woman who knows intimately what it is to tend to a small child's fever in the small hours of the night while The Bachelor glows silently from her phone.

And then, suddenly, in the time it takes to drive home from a rare evening out, everything is upended. Nothing is constant, now, except for the ash, and Thea is left marveling at the things that change and the ones that don't at what may very well be the end of the world.

Propulsive and poetic, Ash is a novel that burns with rage and joy at once. Remarkably lithe and multidimensional, it celebrates the small miracles that thrive even in motherhood's darkest moments.

Review Quotes

"Extraordinary, surprising, and not to be missed...Written beautifully in short taut paragraphs, poetry, and wonderful detail -- Thea's story comes alive. Powerful and moving!" --Chicago Review of Books

"A darkly funny and rightfully furious portrait of motherhood in the era of climate change...Rendered with Wallace's insightful, sharp, and tender prose, the novel manages to beautifully capture so much about humanity--including motherhood, fear, love, fury, misogyny, community, and what we owe to ourselves and others." --Kirkus

"This poetic novella expertly captures the essence of maternal rage in a tight yet profound narrative.[It] will particularly appeal to working mothers but has a message that should be shouted from the rooftops for all to hear." --Booklist

"Ash is equal parts premonition, fever dream, and love song. A sharp arrow puncturing the dreams and delusions of modern life. I got full body chills reading it, and was left filled with sorrow and longing." --Emma Pattee, author of Tilt

"Louise Wallace is a keen observer of humanity. In Ash, she's created a memorable woman on the verge, a singular narrator in less-than-ideal circumstances: a chaotic schedule, an unjust workplace, a helpless husband, and a child that's fallen sick due to a sudden freak environmental disaster. New experiences call for new containers, new ways to tell a story. As poetic as it is experimental, Ash is one woman's bold attempt to create a novel way to talk about the unprecedented. At only 148 miraculous pages, this is a novel you'll consume in one sitting."--Katie Yee, author of Maggie; or A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar

"Louise Wallace writes the excruciating and transformative with such precision it's almost impossible to believe. This is a razor-sharp novel: claustrophobic and expansive at once, full of terror and dark humor." -Lottie Hazell, author of Piglet