The cottage floor and the few pieces of furniture are covered in scraps of paper in what he takes to be his father’s handwriting. It is written as a reflection of a spiralling mind with lots of disjointed descriptions and repetition. The narrator’s mother died some time ago, and shortly afterwards their father disappeared, apparently unable to accept what had happened. Fray is an exceptional and haunting debut, very reminiscent of the work of Max Porter … I absolutely loved it. I just about stuck with it, and was ultimately disappointed by it, though by its experimental nature I can respect Carse's boldness.

I always think an 800m race feels like a great idea until about 500m, then you are hanging on for dear life.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Does this mean the father is alive, or that some other person or strange being is at hand, playing a nasty and frightening trick on the narrator? Along the way, they talk about the darkness that has clouded their life at times, and the ways they’ve tried to cope. The low rating indicates to me that it has at least done something unique and different and isn’t just a “mediocre people-pleaser”. Unfortunately, it conveyed that in the first 40 pages or so, and the rest of the story did little but take away from its strength.

The problem is that the same word also attached to people who may have extreme anxiety conditions that will totally derail their lives. It’s an unusual novel which creates a real sense of place and uses the encroaching natural surroundings to accentuate the narrator’s imploding mental health. The narrator has now traced their father to this cottage – he’s not there himself, but the place is full of papers and maps written and drawn by his hand. Fray is drenched in atmosphere, and the imagery it produces transports you to the highlands for this evocative tale of grief and loss. A twisting tale of grief and mental health that sucked me in from the start and swept me along with it … I couldn’t put it down.A man is looking for his wife, he believes that she is hidden somewhere and will stop at nothing to find her. The story is set in the bleakness of the Scottish highlands, which sets the scene for a beautiful tale of loss, grief, and personal discovery. There's a wonderful community waiting to welcome you to parkrun or to clubs or whatever it might be.

Frustrating and irritating when you’re circling back round the exact same idea for the tenth time 40 pages later. This author knows how to use language to great effect to create a feeling, to create an atmosphere to create a real intensity, The short sharp sentences, next to the long rambling ones create a stream of consciousness so you feel like you’re in the narrators head. The times of my life when I’m running, I'm happier and healthier, suffer fewer mental health problems. An abandoned cottage in the remote wilderness, filled with thousands of confusing, terrifying handwritten notes.Of course they are safe and dry and experiencing it at home, but I want them to have a sense of how it feels to be out on a run in that sort of situation – and sort of bring them along with that.