Nola Clark stays Inside, always. She loves a few things about living on the Road: her big sister Lauren, her cat Milton and her friend Seb. She worries about a few things: the winnowing wind of the desert beyond her window, the gnarled hands of the travelling Mapper, and her sister’s inability to keep out of trouble. Set in an alternative reality to the Cold War, the world of Sill Road is one where people fear the Outside air will kill them. To protect themselves, houses are linked by covered-in Roads. These structures are advanced in large cities. In New Zealand’s Central Plateau, however, things are much more rickety. Growing up, Nola’s neighbourhood is content to broil in the heat of their enclosed world. But the thing with Roads is that something’s always coming along them. In the unexplained absence of her sister, Nola and the whole community are forced to choose whose story to believe. Sill Road is a novel about family, a closed door and relationships held together by firm beliefs. Toying with themes of faith, survival and love gone wrong, the story bores into the heart of group survival. It examines how we use narratives to build a world we can survive. It looks at what happens to the people who don’t fit inside those stories. It is about the things we’ll do to save each other. It is about how there is nothing harder than changing our minds.