'A tense taut drama' Good Housekeeping Isobel lives an isolated life in North London where
she works at a nearby library. She feels safe so long as she keeps to her routines and doesn't
let her thoughts stray too far into the past. But a newspaper photograph of a missing local
schoolgirl and a letter from her old teacher send her spiralling and bring back the trauma of
what happened years ago when she was a pupil at The Schoolhouse. The Schoolhouse was a 1970s
experimental school. Isobel's days there were a dark interplay of freedom and adventure
violence and fear. The only record of what happened there is her teenage diary and her memory
. . . One lesson The Schoolhouse taught her was that some truths must never be revealed. But as
the police investigating the missing girl start to ask uncomfortable questions Isobel realises
the truth is coming for her - and it will put her and everyone she has tried to protect at
risk. From the Booker Prize-longlisted author of Love and Other Thought Experiments comes a
masterful and gripping thriller about truth silence and the dead weight of the past. 'A
compelling fast-moving narrative . . . What's best about [Sophie Ward's] novels however is
her gift for bringing characters to life . . . The Schoolhouse delivers a real emotional
impact' Telegraph 'The Schoolhouse is a legit crime thriller: stylish pacey and genuinely
frightening . . . If only more Booker-recognised writers did stuff this fun' The Times
'Queerness and deafness sit alongside themes of resilience and trust making for an evocative
well-paced narrative that's sure to win her new readers' Guardian
