Brighton-based author Araminta Hall‘s menacing, twist-laden novel Unreliable Narrator is set for publication in the US this 14 July.
Offering a fresh perspective on power, memory and the stories people tell themselves, Unreliable Narrator centres on Hope, who, ten years after leaving Somerset in the wake of a tragic event, has built a quiet life while guarding a sinister secret that also protects her former lover, bestselling author Ambrose Glencourt. But when Ambrose publishes a novel that shares blaring similarities with their past – recasting Hope as the villain – she is forced to confront both Ambrose and myriad buried truths. As two conflicting accounts of the past collide, Hope fights to reclaim her story in a world where the loudest voice is often the one taken as gospel.
Two of Hall’s novels, Everything & Nothing and One of the Good Guys, were selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club at WHSmith, while four of her books are currently under option and at various stages of production. Most recently, Imperfect Women was adapted into an eight-part series for Apple TV+, starring Elisabeth Moss, Kerry Washington and Kate Mara, which premiered worldwide on 18 March this year.
Ahead of the book’s publication, CinemaChords sat down with Hall to discuss the creative and structural choices behind Unreliable Narrator, including its multiple perspectives, its exploration of privilege, power and, of course, unreliable narration. She also revealed the novel’s balance between journal entries and literary prose, the contrasting philosophies of writing and storytelling it presents, and the ethical boundaries of drawing on real life for fiction.