Overview

A visit to a health retreat takes a horrifyingly dark twist... Marianne is grieving. Still reeling from the loss of her sister, she wakes up one day to discover a thick, black hair protruding from her spine. Her doctor assures her that the inexplicable growth is a physical reaction to grief. Forced to admit that she isn’t coping, Marianne accepts the offer of a quiet recovery at Nede, a remote health retreat in the Welsh countryside. But all is not as it seems at Nede, and Marianne feels herself starting to lose control: of her body, her mind, and her memories... Why are her fellow patients so unwilling to talk? Can she trust the staff who claim to be so keen to help her? The escape she has craved for so long might finally be possible. But it will come at a terrible price... Exhilaratingly dark and hauntingly beautiful, The Weight of Loss is a spine-tingling debut about grief and obsession, with a shocking twist of an ending that will leave your heart pounding...

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9780861541126

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Reviews

'It's hard to believe The Weight of Loss by Sally Oliver is a debut novel because the writing and pacing are so confident and assured. Compulsive and deeply unsettling. Don't start it if you have stuff to do!' -- Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures 'I love Sally Oliver's writing... I found the whole thing addictive.' -- Helen Fisher, author of Space Hopper 'Daring, unsettling and original, The Weight of Loss is a debut to savour. Sally Oliver writes with startling intensity.' -- Victoria Gosling, author of Before the Ruins 'The Weight of Loss is a wrenching, viscerally weird novel of grief, longing and mortality. Perceptive, erudite and powerful, I haven't been able to stop thinking about how much I loved it!' -- Leon Craig, author of Parallel Hells 'Intelligent, addictive, and unsettling. Sally Oliver is a thoughtful, gorgeous writer, and this layered exploration of trauma, family, and selfhood will linger.' -- Julia Fine, author of What Should Be Wild 'A deeply unsettling story, told at a brilliantly controlled pace and rendered in luminous prose. It's like the love child of early Ian McEwan and Nicola Barker.' -- Ali Millar, author of The Last Days 'An affecting portrait of a young life shaped by grief, set against an unnerving, surreal medical backdrop, somewhere between My Year of Rest and Relaxation and A Cure for Wellness... A remarkable, thought-provoking, vivid book.' -- Will Wiles, author of Plume 'The Weight of Loss is a beautifully written and intensely felt novel. Its subject matter - grief and mortality - is timeless, but its method, a startling combination of emotional realism and gothic horror, feels brand new.' -- Ian McGuire, author of The Abstainer 'Strangely ethereal, yet entirely solid and compelling, this is a unique novel that talks with startling clarity and composure about the in-between spaces, the possibilities of being, and the connection between the living and the dead.' -- Alice Ash, author of Paradise Block 'A...reflective but ultimately engrossing thriller with a strong emotional core.' * Bookbag * 'The Weight of Loss ripples with visceral language that conceals an ominous underbelly, ever threatening to burst free... Oliver's prose is quite captivating. She writes with a poetic precision, deftly balancing sections with words charged with sexual and fatalistic tension in equal parts.' -- Chicago Review of Books 'Gripping, gory and addictive... An exploration of grief and trauma in a weird health retreat where all is not as it seems.' -- Amanda Craig, author of The Golden Rule 'I started reading The Weight of Loss without knowing what to expect. And I was delighted to be gripped from the very first page - a very curious and compelling opening scene - and I finished the novel in 3 days. It is addictive reading, carrying the reader along through a clever narrative structure and raising many intriguing questions. The last fifty pages are intense and I was swept along by the strangeness of the story. But it is both strange and somehow very real at the same time: I've never read anything quite like it. Beautiful!' -- Lucy Ashe, author of Clara & Olivia

'I love Sally Oliver's writing. The plot of The Weight of Loss was wonderfully intriguing; but it was the emotion in the story and the quality of the writing that sang out to me. I found the whole thing addictive.' -- Helen Fisher, author of Space Hopper 'Daring, unsettling and original, The Weight of Loss is a debut to savour. Sally Oliver writes with startling intensity.' -- Victoria Gosling, author of Before the Ruins 'Intelligent, addictive, and unsettling. Sally Oliver is a thoughtful, gorgeous writer, and this layered exploration of trauma, family, and selfhood will linger.' -- Julia Fine, author of What Should Be Wild 'A deeply unsettling story, told at a brilliantly controlled pace and rendered in luminous prose. It's like the love child of early Ian McEwan and Nicola Barker.' -- Ali Millar, author of The Last Days 'An affecting portrait of a young life shaped by grief, set against an unnerving, surreal medical backdrop, somewhere between My Year of Rest and Relaxation and A Cure for Wellness... A remarkable, thought-provoking, vivid book.' -- Will Wiles, author of Plume 'The Weight of Loss is a beautifully written and intensely felt novel. Its subject matter - grief and mortality - is timeless, but its method, a startling combination of emotional realism and gothic horror, feels brand new.' -- Ian McGuire, author of The Abstainer 'Strangely ethereal, yet entirely solid and compelling, this is a unique novel that talks with startling clarity and composure about the in-between spaces, the possibilities of being, and the connection between the living and the dead.' -- Alice Ash, author of Paradise Block

'It's hard to believe The Weight of Loss by Sally Oliver is a debut novel because the writing and pacing are so confident and assured. Compulsive and deeply unsettling. Don't start it if you have stuff to do!' -- Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures 'I love Sally Oliver's writing... I found the whole thing addictive.' -- Helen Fisher, author of Space Hopper 'Daring, unsettling and original, The Weight of Loss is a debut to savour. Sally Oliver writes with startling intensity.' -- Victoria Gosling, author of Before the Ruins 'The Weight of Loss is a wrenching, viscerally weird novel of grief, longing and mortality. Perceptive, erudite and powerful, I haven't been able to stop thinking about how much I loved it!' -- Leon Craig, author of Parallel Hells 'Intelligent, addictive, and unsettling. Sally Oliver is a thoughtful, gorgeous writer, and this layered exploration of trauma, family, and selfhood will linger.' -- Julia Fine, author of What Should Be Wild 'A deeply unsettling story, told at a brilliantly controlled pace and rendered in luminous prose. It's like the love child of early Ian McEwan and Nicola Barker.' -- Ali Millar, author of The Last Days 'An affecting portrait of a young life shaped by grief, set against an unnerving, surreal medical backdrop, somewhere between My Year of Rest and Relaxation and A Cure for Wellness... A remarkable, thought-provoking, vivid book.' -- Will Wiles, author of Plume 'The Weight of Loss is a beautifully written and intensely felt novel. Its subject matter - grief and mortality - is timeless, but its method, a startling combination of emotional realism and gothic horror, feels brand new.' -- Ian McGuire, author of The Abstainer 'Strangely ethereal, yet entirely solid and compelling, this is a unique novel that talks with startling clarity and composure about the in-between spaces, the possibilities of being, and the connection between the living and the dead.' -- Alice Ash, author of Paradise Block 'A...reflective but ultimately engrossing thriller with a strong emotional core.' * Bookbag * 'The Weight of Loss ripples with visceral language that conceals an ominous underbelly, ever threatening to burst free... Oliver's prose is quite captivating. She writes with a poetic precision, deftly balancing sections with words charged with sexual and fatalistic tension in equal parts.' -- Chicago Review of Books 'Gripping, gory and addictive... An exploration of grief and trauma in a weird health retreat where all is not as it seems.' -- Amanda Craig, author of The Golden Rule

'I love Sally Oliver's writing. The plot of The Weight of Loss was wonderfully intriguing; but it was the emotion in the story and the quality of the writing that sang out to me. I found the whole thing addictive.' -- Helen Fisher, author of Space Hopper

Author Information

Sally Oliver is a writer with a Master's degree in English from Lancaster University. She began her career in publishing in 2015, and has worked in Sales, Marketing and Rights. Her writing has appeared in publications including the Riding Light Review and the Blueshift Journal. The Weight of Loss is her debut novel.

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