Watch This Writer: Caroline Smailes
Until not too long ago, as many of you know, I worked as a writing mentor and literary agent with Font Literary Agency. I have now left that work behind to pursue writing full time.
For assorted reasons, I know this has been the right move for me and I have no regrets — except for one.
Just before leaving the agency, I was about to sign an exceptionally talented writer from
the North of England called Caroline Smailes.
Now Caroline has just released her second novel, Black Boxes.
Like her first book, In Search of Adam, Black Boxes is not easy-reading fiction. It is a literary, not a genre novel, but if you wanted to assign it a label, I suppose it would fall under what the trade calls “misery lit”. Except that in its emotional range and linguistic virtuousity it rises head and shoulders above any other such book that I have read.
The two main characters who play out the claustrophobic, closed-in drama are Ana, a mother in the midst of a psychological breakdown and her neglected daughter, Pip. As the ominous story unfolds, the tension builds again and again to the point of being almost unbearable.
You are squirming and your internal voice is pleading: “Enough. No more.” You want to pull away.
But you can’t.
You don’t.
It is this ability to pin her readers to the anguish on the page that makes Caroline Smailes so important. We are simply not permitted to avert our eyes (and hearts).
Somehow - how? - she forces us to stay with it, to feel the full impact, and full implications, of what her damaged characters must endure. And in our feeling to know.
And to grow.
I could also talk about Smailes’ sophisticated use of language(s) - sections of the book employ sign language. I could describe the grit, the polish, the pacing, the depth and the daring that characterise the writing. Some of these have been discussed by other reviewers, here and here.
But, like all great writing, this unusual book from a unique talent really needs to be experienced to be appreciated.
You must read her.
As a result of my life changes, Caroline Smailes is once again in search of an agent.
But not for long, I reckon.
Not for long.