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Slip of a Fish is set within the persistent heat of a presciently irregular English summer ‘The blue skies and heat go on,’ Amy Arnold writes ‘Every evening at six thirty, the weatherman points to a map covered in oranges and reds and talks about high pressure and jet streams’ Through the summer we follow Ash, the quick-thinking, word-punning protagonist Often accompanied by her seven-year-old daughter Charlie, she explores her familiar rural surroundings They climb trees, swim and hold their breath beneath the water Ash pushes on, swimming with no thought of the energy needed to return, keeping her head under the water whilst Charlie watches nervously   Ash’s husband Abbott is fixated by his latest material purchases; drawing attention to his new watch and mapping the progress of a skylight installation in their house He exists mainly as adjudicator, chiding her absent-mindedness It is Charlie who is Ash’s companion: ‘There she is Charlie, light of my life, fire of my heart’ Charlie is a frequently dishevelled and quiet presence by Ash’s side   The winner of And Other Stories’ inaugural Northern Book Prize, which was established to discover new authors based in the North of England, Arnold’s impressive debut is strange and dexterous The pace of the book – short sentences, pared language – means the reader is pulled headfirst, sprinting after Ash Inside Ash’s head, words are alive She refers to her  ‘collection’ – a mental list of words that please her ‘I wanted “creepeth” for my collection,’ she decides She takes ‘impromptu’ too, ‘the m, the p, the t’ Arnold has an ability to capture on the page a complex, obsessive mind without veering into pretention or convolution Ash’s neurosis is haunting because Arnold contains it within an otherwise wordless protagonist  Ash has turned almost silent and, with her mouth tightly closed, the speed of her thoughts becomes claustrophobic   Ash connects words, dissects them, and then digresses, following the patterns they evoke Much of the book follows these connections She is absorbed by language and grammar Even when Ash stays still, there is something to ensnare her She lies in bed,