FRAY By Chris Carse Wilson
HarperNorth / 27th April 2023 / Hardback Fiction / £14.99
‘Fray is right up there for me with other first-person books like The Catcher in the Rye and Janice Galloway’s The Trick is to Keep Breathing. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.’ - Alan Cumming
‘Grief is the everyday devil, and in this hallucinatory debut it grabs us by the hand. Is there a mystery to solve? Or is it the real mystery that any of us manages to go on living in the face of grief?’ - Damian Barr
‘Mind-alteringly beautiful writing.’- Kirstin Innes
The debut literary suspense novel by Chris Carse Wilson, exploring hope and grief in the remote wilderness of the Scottish Highlands. Chris secretly wrote Fray in fifteen-minute bursts on the bus to and from work, even hiding the book from his wife until it was finished.
I am not gone. Mum is not gone. We are here. We are hidden.
A father who is trying to rescue his lost wife.
Their child, desperately searching the wild forests and dangerous mountains of the Scottish Highlands, not knowing what’s out there.
An abandoned cottage in the remote wilderness, filled with thousands of confusing, terrifying handwritten notes.
And a dark, looming voice who threatens to destroy everything…
ABOUT CHRIS CARSE WILSON
Chris Carse Wilson is a debut author and lifelong runner who uses exercise and nature to manage his mental health. Chris is a passionate advocate for mental health awareness and was diagnosed as autistic at the age of 40. He lives outside Dundee, where he was part of the team who created V&A Dundee, Scotland’s design museum.
INTRODUCTION TO FRAY
Chris Carse Wilson began writing Fray in 2016 during a family trip to Glen Coe in the Scottish Highlands.
He had long wanted to write about his own mental health experiences but had always struggled to find a way to do this. The key moment came during a mountain run in a storm.
Chris said: “I had foolishly decided to try and run up one of the Munro mountains in Glen Coe on a dark October day. Not long into the climb, the rain came on heavily and the wind really picked up – the conditions were painful, with raindrops spiking into my face and terrible visibility.
“I had to give up halfway, but on the way back down I passed an old, boarded-up hunting lodge. That combination of the wild, threatening weather and this abandoned building gave me the way into telling a story that is open and honest about mental health.”
Chris would later receive an autism diagnosis, after completing Fray.
He said: “My mental health challenges are inextricably linked to being autistic and how I experience the world, which for 40 years of my life I never understood. The diagnosis has been an incredible moment, although I’m still learning and coming to terms with it.
“But, and this is crucial, this book isn’t really about me – it’s about the mental health experiences we all face, and the ways we may struggle to understand or communicate these. At its heart, Fray is a book about love and self-acceptance, while also taking the reader on a wild adventure through the Scottish Highlands.”
FURTHER ADVANCE PRAISE
‘Fray is a haunting, insightful literary story... a tale of family, tragedy, and loneliness set against the evocative backdrop of the Scottish Highlands, written with a unique flair and style. A dark and atmospheric masterpiece.’ - Vikki Patis, author of Return to Blackwater House
‘Eerie and ethereal, Fray is an unsettling quest in the unforgiving Scottish Highlands – utterly spellbinding.’ - Marion Todd, author of the DI Clare Mackay series
‘Fray is a totally original novel and I loved it for that… A dangerous journey that throws up lots of surprises. The writing is awe-inspiring.’ - Alex Pine, bestselling author of the DI James Walker series
'Dark and atmospheric, Fray is chilling and very original. I couldn't put it down.' - Simon McCleave
'Chris Carse Wilson has that deftness of touch that will scare you witless but keep you coming back for more and more.' - Jonathan Whitelaw
Fray will also be available as an audio book read by Angus King, who voiced Booker Prize winner Shuggie Bain.