{"title":"Books by William Wall","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781848408852","title":"Writers Anonymous","description":"Fighting off the boredom of lockdown, acclaimed author Jim Winter decides to share his skills by setting up an anonymous online writing workshop – but his generosity will cost him more than he knows.   Right away, the work of a talented student known only as Deirdre stands out. Her novel concerns the death of Mattie Lantry, a lonely seventeen-year-old found murdered in the now-distant summer of 1980, in the local cemetery of his quiet fishing town. The writing is brilliant, but there’s one problem: Jim grew up with Mattie, and Deirdre knows things that only he and his schoolfriends should know. Chapter by chapter, she’s revealing a story that he’s worked all his life to repress.   Who is Deirdre, and what will her novel uncover? To find out, Jim must return to the town he fled all those years ago. As his buried past and perfect present collide, the stories he’s told about his own nature – to his reading public, to his loved ones and to himself – begin to fall apart.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55205868437877,"sku":"9781848408852","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848408852_eeda7eb9-0acf-4501-9059-00188de84604.jpg?v=1786029252"},{"product_id":"9780822966265","title":"The Islands","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWilliam Wall is the first international winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this collection of interconnected stories, the beautiful and ravaging forces of sea and land collide with the forces of human nature, through isolation and family, love and loss, madness and revelation. The stories follow the lives of two sisters and the people who come and go in their lives, much like the tides. Dominated by the tragic loss of a third sister at a young age, their family spirals out of control. We witness three stages of the sisters' lives, each taking place on an island—in southwest Ireland, southern England, and the Bay of Naples. Beautifully and sparsely written, the stories deeply evoke landscape and character, and are suffused with a keen eye for detail and metaphor.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294946636149,"sku":"9780822966265","price":12.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780822966265_6d3f6ab0-e18b-4a89-bd77-190a1413cd1a.jpg?v=1786015904"},{"product_id":"9781848408838","title":"Empty Bed Blues","description":"When Kate Holohan’s husband dies suddenly, the extent of his disastrous financial speculation is revealed – together with a mistress and a secret love-nest in the small Italian fishing port of Camogli. Unwilling to take on the ocean of debt and deceit she has inherited, Kate abandons her home and teaching job and flees to Italy in the hope of making a new life.   Her new neighbour, Anna Ferrara, is a formidable and mysterious older lady who takes Kate under her wing, teaching her Italian, finding her work and offering her friendship and more. But it will be Anna’s past – as a journalist, writer, former Resistance fighter and a committed communist – that will also challenge Kate and force her to reconsider her responsibilities back home and the values she truly wants to represent.   Over three seasons, William Wall conjures the colours, tastes and scents of Liguria, as Empty Bed Blues explores the intersection of friendship, love, language, debt and politics, all told with humour, sensitivity and gold standard storytelling.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308376699253,"sku":"9781848408838","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781848408838_e54390b7-2561-4b9b-a622-41fca0c97ae2.jpg?v=1786029250"},{"product_id":"suzy-suzy","title":"Suzy Suzy","description":"A startling and gripping novel, Suzy, Suzy follows a teenage girl trying to understand the chaos of her family life. Suzy lives in a dysfunctional household. She can't stand her mother; her father is keeping secrets; and her brother only seems to egg on their parents' erratic and unpredictable behaviour. Alongside her friends, Suzy finds herself drawn into the downward spiral of her parents' relationship, and as a result is drawn into the centre of a mystery surrounding a murder. Forced to make impossible choices, Suzy must navigate the increasingly disturbing antics of her family and the oddities of the mystery she finds herself involved in, while also trying to survive the horrors of secondary school. Narrated by a troubled young woman, the novel weaves a tale of secrets, lies and betrayal in the pressure cooker of her formative years. William Wall is an underrated Irish master with a powerful, distinctive writing style, and an uncanny ability to create astonishingly complex and well-realised female protagonists.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57487764619637,"sku":"9781788545501","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781788545501.jpg?v=1786354989"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-william-wall.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}