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Hovel
In this debut novel, a young woman in the Rocky Mountains, separated from the ancestral rhythms of her home in Scotland, turns to ancient rituals to find solace and connection. With shades of Olga Tokarczuk, Ali Smith, and Rachel Cusk,
Hovel
is a book for those fascinated by female interiority.
Homesickness takes many forms. Alone in the mountains because of her husband’s job, occupied by little more than online video captioning she calls “kitten work,” our narrator becomes fascinated by the not-long-gone life of her Scottish ancestors, a time when the lamplighter took the night off for the full moon, girls bathed their faces in morning dew, and people sang to the seals.
Her husband, however, is unsure of the emotional efficacy of cooking by candlelight, peeing in the woods, and writing vexed letters to the mayor about the birds living in the doomed aspens behind their apartment building. Especially because the letters are being read, out loud, at the town meetings attended by unimpressed neighbours. But our narrator is bewitched by the liminality of memory.
In a novel of compelling poetic precision and depth, Ross captures the lengths we go to for connection when we’re alone, following threads of personal history and fascination to conclusions one can only reach when there’s too much time on one’s hands and it’s too cold to go outside.
Homesickness takes many forms. Alone in the mountains because of her husband’s job, occupied by little more than online video captioning she calls “kitten work,” our narrator becomes fascinated by the not-long-gone life of her Scottish ancestors, a time when the lamplighter took the night off for the full moon, girls bathed their faces in morning dew, and people sang to the seals.
Her husband, however, is unsure of the emotional efficacy of cooking by candlelight, peeing in the woods, and writing vexed letters to the mayor about the birds living in the doomed aspens behind their apartment building. Especially because the letters are being read, out loud, at the town meetings attended by unimpressed neighbours. But our narrator is bewitched by the liminality of memory.
In a novel of compelling poetic precision and depth, Ross captures the lengths we go to for connection when we’re alone, following threads of personal history and fascination to conclusions one can only reach when there’s too much time on one’s hands and it’s too cold to go outside.
- GenresFictionLiterary Fiction
352 pages, Hardcover
First published March 17, 2026
10 people are currently reading
795 people want to read
About the author
Ailsa Ross
2 books9 followersAilsa Ross writes about people, art and history for Outside, the Guardian, and the BBC. She grew up in the north of Scotland and lives in the Canadian Badlands. Her debut novel, Hovel – about a restless woman who resists the temptation to run away from her dishevelled life – will be published by Strange Light / Penguin Random House in March 2026.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 13, 2026
there were a lot of things i liked about this. the writing is beautiful and the narrator’s ruminations create an inner atmosphere that is lonely, and cold, and wet as her surroundings.
to summarize the novel: a woman faced with a town she feels disconnected from spends an entire book contemplating how she lives through the lenses of nature, ancestry, and tradition. she makes bids for connection; she observes the living around her (animal, bug, stranger); and, braided into these reflections, are bits of history, told in a way that shows us how much of it has been lost in our day to day …and how much can be found if you look.
this is a conceit i liked, but as the book was winding down, i wanted the narrator to do something, anything, as a culmination of all the ruminations. instead, the book just.. ends. and this gutted the entire thing for me.
perhaps if this had been more fiction and less memoir, the narrator could’ve made that choice. i imagine the narrator didnt because the author is still with her husband, perhaps still living in the states. and, no shade to this author, but perhaps she shoudve written about someone like herself, but not herself.
because this book is not about her relationship, yet, by her own admission, she moved to the rocky mountains from scotland because chose romantic love over community and her homeland. it is the cornerstone the book sits upon. but, as it stands, i dont understand why. and, not only do we never get a reason for this decision, it seems incongruous with the woman i met ln this work. by the end of this book, though it is clear the narrator genuinely loves her husband, i had begun to hate him. (his condescension, his annoyance at her eccentricities.) i genuinely thought she would leave… but she doesn’t.
there is meaning to observing life, there is meaning to a deep and cavernous interiority. we can find meaning anywhere, everywhere, and not just that but everything outside ourselves has a deep, historical meaning too. isnt that wonderful? isnt that powerful?
but what happens when the modern woman observes, learns, and documents the meaning of history and the world around us? does it change her? no. it seems this modern woman would rather be married than let that change take place.
…no wonder she’s depressed.
to summarize the novel: a woman faced with a town she feels disconnected from spends an entire book contemplating how she lives through the lenses of nature, ancestry, and tradition. she makes bids for connection; she observes the living around her (animal, bug, stranger); and, braided into these reflections, are bits of history, told in a way that shows us how much of it has been lost in our day to day …and how much can be found if you look.
this is a conceit i liked, but as the book was winding down, i wanted the narrator to do something, anything, as a culmination of all the ruminations. instead, the book just.. ends. and this gutted the entire thing for me.
perhaps if this had been more fiction and less memoir, the narrator could’ve made that choice. i imagine the narrator didnt because the author is still with her husband, perhaps still living in the states. and, no shade to this author, but perhaps she shoudve written about someone like herself, but not herself.
because this book is not about her relationship, yet, by her own admission, she moved to the rocky mountains from scotland because chose romantic love over community and her homeland. it is the cornerstone the book sits upon. but, as it stands, i dont understand why. and, not only do we never get a reason for this decision, it seems incongruous with the woman i met ln this work. by the end of this book, though it is clear the narrator genuinely loves her husband, i had begun to hate him. (his condescension, his annoyance at her eccentricities.) i genuinely thought she would leave… but she doesn’t.
there is meaning to observing life, there is meaning to a deep and cavernous interiority. we can find meaning anywhere, everywhere, and not just that but everything outside ourselves has a deep, historical meaning too. isnt that wonderful? isnt that powerful?
but what happens when the modern woman observes, learns, and documents the meaning of history and the world around us? does it change her? no. it seems this modern woman would rather be married than let that change take place.
…no wonder she’s depressed.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Hovel by Ailsa Ross is about a young woman in the Rocky Mountains who, separated from the ancestral rhythms of her home in Scotland, turns to ancient rituals to find solace and connection.
Whew… this one felt like homework.
The novel unfolds almost entirely through the narrator’s internal, meandering dialogue, occasionally interrupted by photographs that blur the line between fiction and memoir. The atmosphere is undeniably moody (cold air, isolation, longing), and Ross is clearly interested in themes of displacement, lineage, and the human need for ritual. There’s an intellectual ambition here that I can respect.
But respect and enjoyment are not the same thing.
I knew within the first few pages this was not going to be a book for me. The prose leans heavily inward, circling the same ideas without much narrative propulsion. The photographs, while intriguing in concept, didn’t ground the story so much as further fragment it. I kept waiting for the emotional core to crystallize, for the rituals to feel transformative rather than scattered and distracting.
Readers who enjoy meditative, experimental fiction rooted more in atmosphere than plot may find something to admire here. For me, it felt dense and distant, a book I appreciated more in theory than in practice.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada, Strange Light & NetGalley for the ARC.
Whew… this one felt like homework.
The novel unfolds almost entirely through the narrator’s internal, meandering dialogue, occasionally interrupted by photographs that blur the line between fiction and memoir. The atmosphere is undeniably moody (cold air, isolation, longing), and Ross is clearly interested in themes of displacement, lineage, and the human need for ritual. There’s an intellectual ambition here that I can respect.
But respect and enjoyment are not the same thing.
I knew within the first few pages this was not going to be a book for me. The prose leans heavily inward, circling the same ideas without much narrative propulsion. The photographs, while intriguing in concept, didn’t ground the story so much as further fragment it. I kept waiting for the emotional core to crystallize, for the rituals to feel transformative rather than scattered and distracting.
Readers who enjoy meditative, experimental fiction rooted more in atmosphere than plot may find something to admire here. For me, it felt dense and distant, a book I appreciated more in theory than in practice.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada, Strange Light & NetGalley for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Hovel is a book that drifts from one thought to the next as the narrator experiences a year of seasons changing. She writes about how she has moved away from Scotland to an isolated town in Canada, and through this year she attempts to re-connect with nature and her ancestral past. Although meaningful, the writing could've been more concise. We got too many stories from other perspectives, that didn't seem to relate to the narrator. Focusing only on how she was using her Scottish traditions to counter the loneliness would've really driven home the themes of personal history, isolation and being a woman in this modern age.
My favorite quote: 'Now I'm in a strange house with a man. All those ancestors with their hands in mine, with their mouths and their tears. They're in my heart I know.'
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for the advanced copy!
My favorite quote: 'Now I'm in a strange house with a man. All those ancestors with their hands in mine, with their mouths and their tears. They're in my heart I know.'
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for the advanced copy!
March 22, 2026
This was a thoughtful, contemplative debut. Not a lot happens and it is very slow moving but i loved the Scottish setting and the many observations the author/narrator makes. I doubt it will be one for everyone but I enjoyed it and look forward to what the author writes next. It was also good on audio narrated by Rebecca Auerbach.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
lyrical, unique, and a bit strange, if you like Olga Tokarczuk (Drive your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead) this is definitely a fun one for you to read, and the photos break the flow in an interesting and disorienting way. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.
March 26, 2026
I really wanted to like this more. The writing is beautiful and the narrator for the audiobook was fantastic (thank you, libro.fm). But ... it just fell short. I literally was shocked when the book ended because it did not feel concluded in the slightest
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Not what I expected based off of the summary on the back cover. I had hoped for a more cohesive read but this was a bit too contrived and literary for me.
Want to read
March 20, 2026dnf
March 24, 2026
Brilliant, quiet, strange, particular…
March 25, 2026
this book put words to feelings i was only vaguely aware of and now everything makes sense.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews