‘Taut” is one of the most overused words in book marketing. A novel is nothing if not “irresistibly taut”, “taut and emotionally charged”, or even “bow-string taut and visceral”. It’s become a glib descriptor – the likes of which Kathryn Scanlan would probably detest. Ironically, there’s not a writer today for whom the word is more appropriate.
The author has earned a reputation for turning out slim volumes which trouble the boundary between novel and nonfiction. Her award-winning debut, Aug 9 – Fog, draws from a diary that Scanlan picked up at auction, the entries of which she deconstructed then reassembled. Her most recent title, Kick the Latch, is based on real-life conversations she had with an Iowan former horse trainer called Sonia. The book, which was awarded this year’s Gordon Burn prize on Thursday, is made up of short vignettes (the shortest is just 15 words long), which immerse readers into an insular and often violent subculture. As with Aug 9 – Fog, Scanlan edited and rearranged the transcripts, deploying artistic licence here and there to create something almost true.
