The Hill

About the book

'The future of literature is in exceptional, inspired hands'
Michael Cunningham, author of Day

'One of the best new books I've read not only this year but in some time'
New Yorker, Best Books of the Year so Far

'A debut reminiscent of Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping'
Jeffrey Eugenides, author of The Virgin Suicides

'I don't know how Clark wrote The Hill, but I'm glad she did. I'll be rereading it for the rest of my life'
Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!

'Equal parts comedy of coming of age and Sebaldian rumination. Lady Bird meets The Emigrants. I loved it'
Brandon Taylor, author of Minor Black Figures

'I have never read a book that captures the experience of growing up so precisely'
Naomi Klein, author of Doppelganger

Suzanna Klein was a baby when her mother got up early one morning to rob a bank with a group of fellow radicals. Now, Suzanna spends every Saturday visiting Hillcrest Prison, a place her mother will never leave.

At home, Suzanna is raised by her grandmother, who is unforgiving of her daughter's crime and refuses to visit the prison. Surrounding Suzanna are her grandmother's friends, who know one another from their years in the Communist Party. These women once insisted on changing the world, but are now torn between teaching Suzanna how the world works and shielding her from it.

Suzanna vows to return to the prison forever, but her mother wants her to be free. Told with irreverent wisdom and visionary force, The Hill is an incandescent novel of a child growing up between worlds, and of a family broken apart by the desire for change.