The Retreat by Alison Moore

 

The Retreat by Alison Moore.

Published 15th November 2021 by Salt.

From the cover of the book:

Since childhood, Sandra Peters has been fascinated by the small, private island of Lieloh, home to the reclusive silent-film star Valerie Swanson.

Having dreamed of going to art college, Sandra is now in her forties and working as a receptionist, but she still harbours artistic ambitions. When she sees an advert for a two-week artists' retreat on Lieloh, Sandra sets out on what might be a life-changing journey.

The Retreat is a story about pursuing dreams and suffering artists, which unfolds with Moore’s trademark compelling unease.

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Sandra has always been fascinated by the small private island of Lieloh, and the stories of the enigmatic, reclusive silent film star Valerie Swanson who made her home there. Now in her forties, she has drifted into marriage, motherhood and an undemanding job as a receptionist, but longs to revisit the dream of her youth to go to art college and become an artist. When she spots an advert for a two-week artists' retreat on Lieloh, she see it as a great opportunity to explore her life-long fascination with the island and its former resident, and to pursue her artistic ambitions at the same time, so she books herself a place.

However, when Sandra arrives on the remote island with a rag-tag selection of artists of all persuasions, neither the location nor her fellow community members are quite what she was hoping for. Out of step from the first, Sandra struggles with her rising frustration at her inability to reconcile her ability with her expectation, and to fit in with her fellow artists who seem to view her with derision. Was this really a good idea?

Carol is a budding writer. Determined to finally expand her short format work into a fantasy novel, she takes up the offer from a friend to spend some time away from it all on a tiny remote island to immerse herself in her writing. Slow to settle into a solitary existence, she eventually finds a routine that allows her writing to flourish, but there is something about the house that bothers her. It often feels like there is another presence here, and odd bumps in the night have her convinced that it is haunted by the ghost of its former resident, Valerie Swanson. Is this the idyllic haven she thought it would be?

The Retreat is a beautifully written, and incredibly creepy, novel that explores a host of complex themes around alienation and ghosts from the past. Told in two alternating story lines from the points of view of Sandra in the uncomfortable few days she spends at her artists' retreat, and Carol in the months she is writing her book in her refuge from the world, it's not easy to see quite how their tales relate to each other in terms of time and place, beyond the connection to Valerie Swanson, and there is a wonderful build up of tension as you wait for their separate accounts to touch - and touch they finally do, in the most deliciously conceived way.

There is such an unsettling feel about this book, which Moore embroiders through remote settings; inclement weather, characterised with an underlying chill; and oblique references to the history of the island locations, especially about the mysterious Valerie Swanson and the apparently conflicting parts of her personality. If this wasn't enough to set you on edge, the relationships between Sandra and her fellow artists is filled with excruciating moments as she hovers around the edge of the cosy set-up they establish in the rambling house on Lieloh, always the outsider - but it's not easy to tell whether this distance between them is a deliberate act on their part, or simply something about Sandra herself, as her narrative is so unreliable. At the same time, Carol's part of the story sees her becoming divorced from reality as the isolation she has immersed herself in begins to take a toll on her mental health, and it is never clear quite how much she recounts is real or imaginary. Each cleverly contrived part of the atmospheric whole combines to build a complex picture, with layer upon layer of themes to delve into - much like the Russian Doll metaphor used so well in these pages.

This is such an impressive and immersive book that draws you in in a way belied by the fact that it is only 160 pages long. It is one to read on a single, viscerally affecting sitting and it will leave you with many things to turn over in your mind once you are done. This is my first book by Alison Moore, but will definitely not be my last. I am well and truly in love with her writing, and will be exploring her entire adult fiction back catalogue in very short order.

The Retreat is available to buy now in paperback from your favourite book retailer, direct from Salt HERE.

Thank you to Helen Richardson PR for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Alison Moore's first novel, The Lighthouse, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Awards (New Writer of the Year), winning the McKitterick Prize. Both The Lighthouse and her second novel, He Wants, were Observer Books of the Year. Her short fiction has been included in Best British Short Stories and Best British Horror anthologies, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra and collected in The Pre-War House and Other Stories. 

Born in Manchester in 1971, she lives near Nottingham with her husband and son, and is an honorary lecturer in the School of English at the University of Nottingham.