The Shutter of Snow

Introduced by Claire-Louise Bennett, experience one new mother’s psychological journey in this lost 1930 foremother of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.

'Extraordinary. A fascinating and unexpected delight.' Lucy Ellmann

'Haunting and evocative, this is a timeless portrayal of madness.' Catherine Cho

'A startling, luminous and magnetic novel about the complexity of motherhood.' Yiyun Li

'With its deep musicality, Coleman's unforgettable voice was years ahead of its time.' Sinéad Gleeson

Listen to me she said, look at me do you hear. I have got to get out of this place.

Some days, Marthe Gail believes she is God; others, Jesus Christ. Her baby, she thinks, is dead. The red light is shining. There are bars on the window. And the voices keep talking.

Time blurs; snow falls. The doctors tell her it is a breakdown: that this is Gorestown State Hospital. Her fellow patients become friends and enemies, moving between the Day Room and Dining Hall, East Hall and West Side, and avoiding the Strong Room. Her husband visits and shows her a lock of her baby's hair, but she doesn't remember, yet – until she can make it upstairs, ascending towards release . . .

Emily Holmes Coleman's visionary portrait of motherhood and mental illness was inspired by her own experience suffering from postpartum psychosis in a mental asylum. Tragic and ecstatic, shocking and hilarious, poetic and unflinching, her novel from 1930 is a soul’s howl, a confessional talking-cure, a radical dissection of insanity and maternity and a timeless masterpiece.