[close] Clare Wigfall was born in Greenwich, London during the summer of '76. She grew up in Berkeley, California, and London, and now lives in Prague. Her stories have been published in Prospect, New Writing 10, The Dublin Review, X-24, Tatler, and commissioned for BBC Radio 4. She was awarded the UEA Curtis Brown Prize in 1999. Her debut story collection THE LOUDEST SOUND AND NOTHING was published in the UK by Faber and Faber in September, 2007.

Acclaim for Clare Wigfall and THE LOUDEST SOUND AND NOTHING

'In these provocative, terrifying and bold short stories, Clare Wigfall flits through differing moods and scenarios with enviable confidence … Real fears, dark secrets, beautifully interpreted.' Catherine Taylor, Guardian

'Unsettling, brooding, and beautifully crafted. Clare Wigfall's stories display the range and talent of a true wordsmith. Read them slowly - treat them like rations of something delicious and valuable.' Tash Aw, author The Harmony Silk Factory

'Very, very good. The quality of the writing grips you from the beginning. She writes beautifully, with not a word out of place. Beyond the prose itself, there is something compelling about the narrative … it's precisely because of what she leaves out that what she leaves in is so riveting … There's a darkness at the heart of many of her tales that's redolent of Ian McEwan at his best … the best stories are outstanding examples of the form.' Nicholas Royle, Time Out

'Wigfall has written a fine collection of short stories - wry, subtle, excellently crafted.' Kate Saunders, The Times

'Wigfall's prose keeps the reader turning pages, creating whole new worlds and scenarios from one story to the next … This is a debut of masterpiece proportions and heralds the author as one to keep an eye on for the future.' Jacqueline Burton, Sunday Business Post

'Haunting and tantalising ... the book is a journey that moves easily between continents and time ... Wigfall inhabits these terrains completely.' Emma Jacobs, Financial Times

'Wigfall is a writer who can move from the slipstream of Angela Carter to Carvereque realism within the turning of a page, all with a commanding fluency.' Steffen Silvis, Prague Post

'Acutely observed ... at her best, Wigfall can create haunting and memorable short stories ... an ambitious work.' Freya McClements, Irish Times

'The scope and variety of these stories is breathtaking; I lost myself in each one, only to be transported by the next to somewhere - and someone - completely new. An exceptional collection.' Marie Phillips, author of Gods Behaving Badly

'Clare Wigfall's debut collection of short stories stretches over a broad canvas: from a besieged 1870s Paris, to the Arizona desert, to an island off the coast of Scotland … In spite of the diversity of time, place and narrative voice, these stories carry unifying undercurrents - dark, unsettling, occasionally macabre ones … Perhaps the best in the collection is "Caro at the Pool", a brief snapshot of a young teenager in the company of a much older man. In fewer than three pages, Wigfall alludes to strife, jealousies and dangers. She is an impressively mature and nuanced writer, skilled at harnessing the power of suggestion, and understands that silence can often convey more than words.' Mary Fitzgerald, New Statesman

'[A] natural successor to Helen Simpson ... a talent to watch.' Author Susan Hill

'The Loudest Sound and Nothing is the finest debut collection I’ve read since Clare Keegan's Antarctica – and like Keegan, Wigfall seems to have emerged as a talent fully-formed. These are sorrowful, disturbing and darkly beautiful stories, and they deserve, absolutely, to be read.' Peter Hobbs, www.theshortstory.org.uk [close]