Growing Up with a Mother in Prison
5/12/202624 min
Harriet Clark’s novel, “The Hill,” is one of the most anticipated works of fiction of the year. It’s a story of a girl growing up visiting her mother, who is serving a life sentence in prison for a politically motivated crime. And although “The Hill” is a work of fiction, it follows the contours of Clark’s own life closely: her mother is Judy Clark, who drove a getaway car after a robbery in which two police officers and a security guard were killed. One of “The Hill” ’s enthusiastic admirers is Rachel Aviv, a staff writer at The New Yorker. She spoke with Clark about the power of fiction, her mother’s life story, and the power of narrative when thinking about how to confront carceral systems.
Further reading:
- “Harriet Clark’s Début Is a New Kind of Coming-of-Age Novel,” by James Wood
- “The Trial of Gisèle Pelicot’s Rapists United France and Fractured Her Family,” by Rachel Aviv
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
[carrot crunches] Mm-hmm. That is one fresh carrot. Straight out of the Bosch fridge. Uh, what was that? You're in a Bosch. Uh... I'm the feeling you get when your produce stays fresh. Can I just- You're in the fridge, baby ... grab some- Yeah ... more carrots? Help yourself. Carrots.
David Remnick· Host0:26
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Speaker 30:30
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker.
David Remnick· Host0:36
This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Harriet Clark's novel called The Hill is one of the most anticipated works of fiction of this year, and has won some extraordinary reviews, including by James Wood in The New Yorker. It's a story of a girl growing up visiting her mother in prison, where the mother is serving a life sentence. And although The Hill is a work of fiction, it follows the contours of Harriet Clark's own life quite closely. One of the book's enthusiastic readers is Rachel Aviv, a staff writer at The New Yorker.
Rachel Aviv· Guest1:15
When I was reading Harriet Clark's The Hill, I felt almost this kind of sickness that I remember feeling as a kid when I read a book where, like, being apart from the book, it