Editions

From the Heart

From the Heart

A devastating coming-of-age story about a woman caught in the wrong era, from the bestselling author of The Woman in Black.
Everyone likes Olive Piper. A happy, open-hearted child growing up in the 1950s, her life is contented. When her passion for reading gets her into university she feels sure the world is waiting for her.

But then she makes a mistake – the kind any one of us could make – and faces an impossible choice.

'A shattering coming-of-age story' Daily Telegraph

Reviews

  • A quietly shattering coming-of-age story set in the late Fifties and early Sixties ... Hill's storytelling is vivid, yet spare. From the Heart is a captivating portrait of a woman caught in the wrong era. This slender novel could be devoured in an afternoon, but it has an unsettling quality that will stay with the reader long after it is finished

    Violet Hudson, Daily Telegraph

  • The novel is at times almost unbearably painful as Olive attempts to make sense of a world for which she has been poorly prepared... A short but stunning achievement

    Vanessa Berridge, Daily Express

  • From the Heart is a coming-of-age story that embeds different forms of recognition… It keeps you guessing to the end. Its heroine learns things, and so does the reader – the chief one being never to underrate Susan Hill

    David Grylls, Sunday Times

  • What Hill conveys beautifully is the agony of all that is left unsaid in relationships. It is, ultimately, a novel about love: about the dilemmas we face when we are not permitted to live in the way that we wish

    Observer

  • Susan Hill's stylistic approach to writing is one of the stand-out features of this novel -- fast-paced and punchy, with an attention to detail that powerfully reflects Olive's inner turmoil ... her naivete, combined with her struggle to find contentment, is both poignant and hugely endearing

    Erin Bateman, Irish News

More from this Author

View all View all
View all View all

About the Author

Susan Hill

Susan Hill has been a professional writer for over fifty years. Her books have won awards and prizes including the Whitbread, the John Llewellyn Rhys and a Somerset Maugham, and have been shortlisted for the Booker. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Honours. Her novels include Strange Meeting, I’m the King of the Castle, In the Springtime of the Year and A Kind Man. She has also published autobiographical works and collections of short stories as well as the Simon Serrailler series of crime novels. The play of her ghost story The Woman in Black has been running in London’s West End since 1988. She has two adult daughters and lives in North Norfolk. www.susanhill.org.uk

Susan Hill

Read more

/content/dam/prh/articles/archive/halloween-1580x450-2.jpg

Recommendations

10 terrifying classic tales to read
/content/dam/prh/articles/archive/from_the_heart_extract.png

Extracts

From the Heart by Susan Hill

Do we take our freedoms for granted? Read the first chapter from From The Heart, the new novel from Susan Hill that follows a young woman's coming of age

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.