What readers think of The Hill, plus links to write your own review.

The story is narrated by Suzanna Klein, who grows up in New York City primarily raised by her grandparents after her mother is sentenced to life in a remote hilltop prison (called Hillcrest in the novel) for her involvement in a bank robbery gone wrong during a radical political action. The robbery, committed with a group of fellow radicals when Suzanna was a baby, resulted in a death.

From a young age, Suzanna makes regular weekend visits to the prison first accompanied by her grandfather, then arranged by a sympathetic nun, and later on her own. These visits become a central, ritualistic part of her childhood and adolescence. The prison is depicted with vivid, almost surreal details: it has a nursery and a cemetery, watchful guards, other inmates (some with release dates, others without), and a community of visiting children.

The novel unfolds as a unique, somewhat deprived coming-of-age (bildungsroman) story across several stages of Suzanna’s life (around ages 8–9, 12, 15, and nearing high school graduation). It explores her internal world, family tensions, and the push-pull between loyalty to her imprisoned mother and the desire (or pressure) to live a free, independent life outside. Her mother encourages her to move on and be happy, while Suzanna feels a deep vow-like commitment to return “to the hill forever.”

Her grandmother, ashamed and angry at her daughter, refuses to visit or engage much with the prison side of things and pushes Suzanna toward success and normalcy. A cast of older women and other figures from the family’s radical past adds layers of generational weight, loss, and reflection