A creeping story of sapphic obsession with Gothic undertones and a delicious mid-century feel, from the author of the Polari-shortlisted Sunburn....
January 1965. The orphaned O'Leary siblings Tom, Jack, Anna and Peggy arrive in the village of Ballycrea, tight-lipped about their troubled past and desperate for a fresh start.
After being met with suspicion from most of the locals, the family are thrilled when they're taken under the wing of their well-respected neighbours, Bill and Betty Nevan, who offer them work, companionship and an opportunity to fit in.
But for one of the O'Learys, this new friendship sparks an intense attachment that makes the dynamic dangerous for all. It's difficult to bury secrets, but almost impossible to bury feelings...
Like Howarth's acclaimed debut, Heap Earth Upon It explores rural Irish life at a specific moment in time and delves into claustrophobic relationships and tangled identities, leaving you wondering who to trust until the very last page.
'Heap Earth Upon It is a tense and claustrophobic novel with gothic atmosphere which seeps into your bones like fog. It's a fascinating look at mid-century rural Irish life, and a brutal exploration of the corrosive impact of shame and secrecy. Chloe Michelle Howarth knows her sapphic yearning!' Rachel Dawson, author of Neon Roses
'Dark, passionate and poised. A remarkable story of the way rural Ireland haunts and is haunted. Intense and thrilling' Soula Emmanuel, author of Wild Geese
Assured, poignant and beautiful. Howarth writes poetically about loss and love - Anna's thunderbolt moment when she first sees Betty singing at a party is particularly affecting - within an overhanging, unsettling Rebecca-esque tension. There is a cracking pace, too, helped by concise chapters, each of which is in first person from the perspective of one of the three elder O'Learys or Betty - a quartet of very unreliable narrators -- Tom Tivnan. The Bookseller
I lost myself in Chloe Michelle Howarth's strange and startling second novel. It's a deeply affecting tapestry of gothic landscapes and virtuosic, character driven prose. As it haunted me, Heap Earth Upon It will haunt you too -- Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb
Airless and gripping, Heap Earth Upon It perfectly captures what it's like to live under the weight of secrets. The family's yearning for a simpler future is expertly balanced with the darkness of their past. A devastating mix of hope and heartbreak, from one of Ireland's most exciting queer voices -- Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin, author of Ordinary Saints
A tense and claustrophobic novel with gothic atmosphere that seeps into your bones like fog. It's a fascinating look at mid-century rural Irish life, and a brutal exploration of the corrosive impact of shame and secrecy. Chloe Michelle Howarth knows her sapphic yearning! -- Rachel Dawson, author of Neon Roses
Heap Earth Upon It is the perfect slow burn, an absorbing, multifaceted and uneasy novel, with inscrutable characters who shed layers until their fierce, flawed centres are revealed. Set in a 1960s rural Ireland that feels almost timeless, Howarth takes the 'a stranger comes to town' trope and weaves a mesmerising, shimmering web with it, deftly building and breaking tensions with a glance across a room, or a knock on a door. I was drawn in by the characters' quiet watchfulness and insularity, and the strong sense of place, but I was held captive by their rich interiorities, in particular Anna's simmering, swooning obsession that I felt must surely, soon, boil over... A triumph of a second novel -- Emma van Straaten, author of This Immaculate Body
Chloe Michelle Howarth was born in July 1996. She grew up in the West Cork countryside, which has served as an inspiration for her writing. She attended university at IADT in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, where she studied English, Media and Cultural Studies. Chloe currently lives in Brighton. Her debut novel, Sunburn, was shortlisted for the 2024 Polari First Book Prize, the 2024 Book of the Year: Discover Award at the British Book Awards and the 2023 Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction and longlisted for the 2024 Diverse Book Awards.
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