Author(s): Jessie Greengrass

General fiction

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. 'Jessie Greengrass is a master observer of inter-human atmosphere. The High House is about the great crisis of our time but is an unconventional domestic drama performed on an intimate stage.' - Max Porter 'The future imagined in 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