Samantha Clark

Samantha Clark returns to Glasgow to take care of the house left behind by her parents. Moving from room to room, sifting through the clutter, she reflects on her mother’s long and sedated final years of mental illness, and her father’s retreat into the world of amateur radio. Clark contemplates her inheritance, incorporating the lives and work of those she admires — artist Agnes Martin and scientist Vera Rubin — in a powerful account of what we must do with the things we cannot know.

Samantha is an artist and teacher who has taught at the Edinburgh College of Art, and who now lives in Orkney. The Clearing was written as part of her PhD at the University of St Andrews and is a truly touching debut.