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Ash

A fierce, absorbing debut novel about motherhood and rage, for fans of Claire Keegan and Jenny Offill

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Ash

Written by: Louise Wallace
Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Natalie Beran
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Brought to you by Penguin.

Thea lives under a mountain – one that's ready to blow.


A vet at a mid-sized rural practice, she has been called back during maternity leave and is coping – just – with the juggle of meetings, mealtimes, farm visits, her boss's search for legal loopholes and the constant care of her much-loved children, Eli and Lucy.

But something is shifting in Thea – something is burning. Or is it that she is becoming aware, for the first time, of the bright, hot core at her centre?

An urgent rallying cry to women everywhere, ASH is a story about reckoning with one's rage and finding marvels in the midst of chaos.

© Louise Wallace 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural
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Critic Reviews

Louise Wallace writes the excruciating and transformative with such precision it’s almost impossible to believe. This is a razor-sharp novel: claustrophobic and expansive at once, full of terror and dark humour. (Lottie Hazell, author of PIGLET)
ASH is equal parts premonition, fever dream, and love song. A sharp arrow puncturing the dreams and delusions of modern life. I got full body chills reading it, and was left filled with sorrow and longing (Emma Pattee, author of TILT)
Louise Wallace is a keen observer of humanity. In Ash, she's created a memorable woman on the verge, a singular narrator in less-than-ideal circumstances: a chaotic schedule, an unjust workplace, a helpless husband, and a child that's fallen sick due to a sudden freak environmental disaster. New experiences call for new containers, new ways to tell a story. As poetic as it is experimental, Ash is one woman's bold attempt to create a novel way to talk about the unprecedented . . . a novel you'll consume in one sitting (Katie Yee, author of MAGGIE; OR A MAN AND A WOMAN WALK INTO A BAR)
Profoundly unsettling, deeply enraging and unforgettable. ASH is bruising, beautiful and uncompromising in the way that it explores anger, anxiety, motherhood and womanhood.
What a book! Early motherhood, office politics and an actual volcano . . . it just destroyed me, in the best possible way (Marianne Levy, author of DON'T FORGET TO SCREAM)
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