Kim Sherwood

Kim Sherwood’s stories and articles have appeared in numerous journals, including Mslexia, Lighthouse, and Going Down Swinging. The manuscript of her debut novel, Testament, won the 2016 Bath Novel Award. Kim began writing Testament in 2011 after her grandfather, the actor George Baker, passed away and her grandmother began to talk about her experiences as a Holocaust Survivor for the first time.

The letter from the Jewish Museum in Berlin was in the Blue Room - her grandfather's painting studio, where Eva spent the happier days of her childhood. They have found a testimony her grandfather gave after surviving the labour camps in Austria. As Eva unravels truth of her grandfather’s past, she understands the trauma, and the lies, that have haunted her family. Revealing it would change her grandfather's hard-won identity. But it could also change the tide of history. This testament can lend words to wordless grief, and teach her how to live.

Kim Sherwood's extraordinary first novel is a powerful statement of intent. A ‘masterfully composed and ambitious novel that really grips its reader’ with its intense detail and original language.