Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year

Shortlist 2025

The Compound

By Aisling Rawle

You wake up in a compound in the middle of the desert, along with nine other women.

All of you are young, all beautiful, all keen to escape the grinding poverty, political unrest and environmental catastrophe of the outside world.

You realise that cameras are tracking your every move, broadcasting to millions of reality TV fans.

Soon, ten men will arrive on foot – if they all survive the journey.

What will you have to do to win?

And what happens to the losers?

The Compound is an addictive literary satire on modern excess: it holds a twisted mirror up to our obsession with winning, losing and, above all, watching.

About Aisling Rawle...

Aisling Rawle is an ex-bookseller and ex-teacher from Leitrim, where she wrote The Compound, her dark reality TV satire and debut novel.

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