'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