Vanishing Edge

Zillah Bethell was born in Papua New Guineaand came to the UK when she was eight. She read English at Wadham College, Oxford and lives in south Wales with her family. Zillah has published three adult novels on subjects ranging from depression to the Paris communes and artist Gwen John. Her work for children includes four middle-grade novels: A Whisper of Horses, The Extraordinary Colours of Auden Dare, The Shark Caller (shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award) and The Song Walker (shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal 2024)

‘Astonishingly beautiful, slender and poetic novel that defied categorisation.’ The Bookseller'A right of passage novel with characters as sharp and vivid as broken glass, prose that sparks like supercharged neon. Smart, funny, heartbreaking. This is Catcher in The Rye for South Wales.' Nicola Davies‘Zillah Bethell's writing is completely unique, very funny, yet very dark, with a whip-quick change in direction I didn't see coming. To read it is to be lead up to the top of a roller-coaster and pushed, hurtling, down the other side.’ Lisa Heathfield‘Exceptionally beautiful. And dark and sad and funny and heartbreaking and life-affirming, all at the same time. Zillah Bethell has created her own mythology in a sulphur hazed landscape around Port Talbot, and one of the most original and authentic cast of characters I've read, especially narrators Apricot and Charlie.’ Nicola Penfold'Harrowing, poetic, hilarious and tragic, this is a strikingly memorable contemporary YA novel.' The Guardian