I really enjoyed this novel and I have a feeling my adult students will be recommended it a lot. There are so many plot points that resonated with me. I especially thought the bump towards the end was powerful.

Wyld's "Bass Rock" absolutely defined by effectual storytelling, however it felt like much of the violence depicted in snapshots at the end of every part was not only uncalled for, but mostly overmuch. The narratives quickly begun to lose any weight and failed to impress or even register on any deeper lever, it just seemed like violence-porn for the sake of further damaging the female characters.

Past and present come together in this bleak and disturbing tale of three women from three different eras whose paths cross in the shadow of the Bass Rock, a huge outcrop in the sea at North Berwick. A young girl, Sarah, is accused of witchcraft in the 18th century and hounded from her home. Ruth has a new husband, a new house and a new community to come to terms with in the aftermath of WWII. And 40-year old Viv struggles with depression whilst mourning her recently deceased father. Ruth’s story is central to the narrative and it’s a dark and troubling one. This feels like a very angry book, angry at men who control and abuse women, where violence is never far from the surface and where women continually, over the centuries have been doomed to remain unheard and unbelieved. The book is an exploration of loss, trauma and grief, and is a powerful and haunting evocation of the lives of these three women and by extension all women. The writing is superb and the pacing excellent. I found it a hugely compelling read, full of insight and sharp observation about relationships and how the world is still, even today, so often centred around men. A great read.

This is a powerful novel spanning several time periods and written as three connected stories. It is written with outstanding skill. I couldn’t put it down, now I have a sleep deficit. Two stories focus on a family spanning three generations. The protagonists are Viv and her step Grandmother Ruth.

Ruth’s narration describes her life following her marriage and relocation from London to the coastal Scottish location. Ruth’s husband has children from a previous marriage; she adjusts to living with her two step sons and yearns for children of her own. Isolated from the community, she forms a friendship with Betty whose niece Bernadette becomes part of the family. Ruth’s step sons are very likeable; the other men in the story are horrific.

Viv’s narration is contemporary; it begins when as a child she finds a body on the beach. In adulthood she is tasked by the family to catalogue Ruth’s belongings following her death. Viv befriends Maggie who moves into the house with her, Maggie is quirky and gritty in her friendship with Viv. The characters are all unique and thought-provoking.

The third story set in the eighteenth century describes the brutal treatment of Sarah, a young girl who is accused of witchcraft. Sarah is saved by a family who flee their village to escape persecution. This is an extremely disturbing story; Sarah’s maltreatment is haunting and lingering.

The book reflects on abuse, consent and rape and the lasting effects trauma has upon a person. This is a challenging read; the violence and abuse across generations into the present are extremely disturbing. It is a story needing to be told and read widely. I intend to now read Evie Wyld’s past and future novels, great literature from another talented Australian writer. Recommend.

I wish to thank Evie Wyld, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for the advanced copy of The Bass Rock A Novel in exchange for an honest review.

Evie Wyld's writes a ambitious haunting gothic novel set amidst the Scottish North Berwick coast, with its eerie wildness and the the formidable presence of the Bass Rock, bearing witness through the ages of endemic misogyny and toxic masculinity, over which society operates a collective amnesia right up to our contemporary times. Running through the veins of this unsettling and disturbing novel is the barely suppressed rage of what has been done to women through history, the silencing of their voices, the gaslighting, the murder, the oppression, the physical, emotional and psychological abuse, the accusations of witchcraft and insanity. Set in three different eras, there are connections made and unrelenting echoes through time of women's experiences in their fight for survival in a indifferent world.

in the 18th century, Sarah is a teenager who finds herself having to go on the run with a priest and his son when villagers accuse her of being a witch who needs to be burnt. In the post-WW2 years, Ruth has just married Peter, a widower previously married to Elspeth, with two sons. Ruth has recently moved into the area, still grieving over the loss of her brother, Anthony, with a often absent Peter, trying to do her best to be a stepmother to his sons. However, she struggles with her marriage and is unable to fit in with the repressive locals. In the present, Viviane too is grieving, she has lost her father, and she has arrived to clear the house of her grandmother Ruth's things, only to find her little known family history and mystery slowly being revealed. In a disjointed narrative shifting from the past and the present, interspersed with the voices of other ordinary women, there is a stronger focus on Ruth and Viviane than Sarah, although the character of Maggie in the present with her local map of murdered women in the area undoubtedly brings her to the forefront again.

Wyld explores the dysfunctional male psyche that is at the heart of their flawed, violent and abusive behaviours in this engaging and riveting read. Here the terrors that the supernatural might hold pales in comparison when it comes to the dangerous realities and nightmares that women face at the hands of a man, whilst all acknowledgement of their experiences are obliterated as if they never happened or are of little consequence. This is compulsive and unforgettable if dark reading, so beautifully written, imbued with a dark humour and wit, of a timely contemporary reality and theme that refuses to forget and highlights what has happened to women and continues to happen today. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

“There is such stillness in that small wood where my grandmother died that it catches my breath, I feel I am looking up into space or into a deep high-ceilinged crevasse. ‘Hello!’ I call, just to hear if my voice echoes back. It does, three times.”

The Bass Rock is the third novel by award-winning British-Australian author, Evie Wyld. In post-war Britain, newly-married Ruth Hamilton finds herself in an oversized house in a village in North Berwick, Scotland. She tries, when they are home from boarding school, to connect with her step-sons, and to please her demanding, frequently-absent husband, but measuring up to the beloved wife and mother whom they lost proves discouraging.

It’s a far cry from her existence in London, and she still sorely misses the brother who perished in the war. Ruth finds the village claustrophobic and its traditions less than wholesome. Is the vicar simply a harmless, overenthusiastic lunatic? The person she can best relate to is the house-keeper she inherited with the house. Ruth senses a presence in the house, a feeling shared by her housekeeper’s niece.

Decades later, Viviane Hamilton is conducting an inventory so that her grandmother’s house can be sold. As a favour to her uncle, she stays on to keep the place looking lived in. As she sorts through her grandmother’s possessions, she uncovers traces of the woman about whom her own mother has been frustratingly reticent. Viv, too, senses a presence, although she can’t be sure if it’s part of her own mental problems.

In early eighteenth-century Scotland, Sarah has been branded with the taint of her mother’s unconventional lifestyle. When harvests fail and livestock sickens, the villagers, convinced she is a witch, want to burn her. Their priest and his son rescue her and flee through the woods towards the coast.

The three clearly distinguished main narrative strands are arranged in a nested format and these nests are interspersed with short, anonymous pieces that graphically illustrate the fate of women who sometimes make poor choices but are often simply at a disadvantage due to their gender.

This tale of murder, mental, physical and sexual abuse, domestic violence illustrates the ongoing powerlessness of women and children in a patriarchal society. But there is also love and loyalty and friendship, and it highlights the resilience of women who support each other and don’t accept the old lie: that mentality that encourages male privilege without challenge. And a certain odious character does meet a deserving fate.

Echoes of each narrative appear in the others. Viviane’s inner monologue and her conversations are often a source of dark humour. Wyld’s prose is often exquisite: “It rains through the night and all day, but it is not cold. The air is heavy, in the early parts of the morning, like a blanket weighing on us. The loud patter of drops on leaves and the way it moves the scrub around us, jumping off the spring-green growth, weighing down the branches, makes me think of us moving across the belly of a gigantic scaled beast, warmed by its blood.” This is a brilliant read and fans of this talented author will not be disappointed.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday