The Fell

Moss follows Summerwater with a revealing if tepid account of a family’s frustrations and fears while under quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic. Kate and her teenage son, Matt, are in the middle of a mandated two-week lockdown at their home in Derbyshire, England, after Kate’s colleague tests positive. Restless, Kate breaks protocol and, without telling Matt, walks out of their house one evening, leaving her phone behind and trekking into the local mountain range for a brief escape. While there, she tumbles and badly injures herself. Unaware of Kate’s whereabouts, Matt panics, and a neighbor, Alice, calls the police. Though the story takes place over the course of one night, Moss fleshes things out via the characters’ memories and tangents, as Kate worries of government punishment and thinks back on her school days (“maybe they were right at school that breaking one rule makes it logical to break another until the commandments fall like dominos”), Matt waits to hear the worst, and Alice remembers her late husband. The interior monologues exhibit the author’s talent at developing her characters, but in the end it all feels a bit inconsequential. For those already weary of the state of the world, this doesn’t tread enough into new territory. Agent: Jennifer Carlson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (Mar.)