The Road Through the Wall
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  • Published: 8 October 2020
  • ISBN: 9780141994925
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download

The Road Through the Wall

Formats & editions
EBook
6 Feb 2014
Audiobook
8 Oct 2020
Paperback
23 Oct 2013
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Reminiscent of her classic story 'The Lottery', Jackson's disturbing and darkly funny first novel exposes the underside of American suburban life

In Pepper Street, an attractive suburban neighbourhood filled with bullies and egotistical bigots, the feelings of the inhabitants are shallow and selfish: what can a neighbour do for another neighbour, what may be won from a friend? One child stands alone in her goodness: little Caroline Desmond, kind, sweet and gentle, and the pride of her family. But the malice and self-absorption of the people of Pepper Street lead to a terrible event that will destroy the community of which they are so proud. Exposing the murderous cruelty of children, and the blindness and selfishness of adults, Shirley Jackson reveals the ugly truth behind a 'perfect' world.
  • Published: 8 October 2020
  • ISBN: 9780141994925
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
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About the author

Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco in 1916. She first received wide critical acclaim for her short story 'The Lottery', which was published in 1949. Her novels - which include The Sundial, The Bird's Nest, Hangsaman, The Road through the Wall, We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House - are characterised by her use of realistic settings for tales that often involve elements of horror and the occult. Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages are her two works of nonfiction. Come Along With Me is a collection of stories, lectures, and part of the novel she was working on when she died in 1965.

Also by Shirley Jackson

The Lottery and Other Stories
Life Among the Savages
The Missing Girl
We Have Always Lived in the Castle: Popular Penguins
The Lottery
Just an Ordinary Day
Dark Tales
See all

Praise for The Road Through the Wall

An unburnished exercise in the sinister

The New York Times

Her books penetrate keenly to the terrible truths which sometimes hide behind comfortable fictions, to the treachery beneath cheery neighborhood faces and the plain manners of country folk; to the threat that sparkles at the rainbow's edge of the sprinkler spray on even the greenest lawns, on the sunniest of midsummer mornings

Donna Tartt

Shirley Jackson is one of those highly idiosyncratic, inimitable writers ... whose work exerts an enduring spell

Joyce Carol Oates