The Bass Rock weaves together the lives of three women across four centuries. The Bass Rock sits off the coast of Scotland and the women are linked to this place and each other. In the early 1700s Sarah is accused of being a witch, Ruth moves into a new house at North Berwick with her new husband after WWII, six decades later Viv catalogues Ruth's belongings. The novel explores these threads and brings them together.
The Chair of the Judging Panel, Zoya Patel, said:
'The Bass Rock is a consuming and perplexing book, one that forces the reader to engage with the unique narrative structure, but in a way that feels effortless, so engaged are you by the story. This is a novel that demonstrates the author's versatility of style, with the separate narrative parts each having an individual voice. And yet, at no point does the book feel disjointed. Instead, it is as though Evie Wyld has chosen each and every word with precision, building a novel that is a true work of art."
Evie Wyld won the Miles Franklin Award in 2014 for her second novel All The Birds, Singing.