Thread Ripper

An artist in her thirties weaves and unravels connections between the loom and the computer, DNA and technology, dreams and decisions

Thread Ripper is a multi-strand novel about weaving, women, and programming. In Copenhagen, a tapestry-weaver embarks on her first big commission, a digitally woven tapestry. As she works, she draws illuminating connections between all the stuff that life is made from - DNA, plant tissue, algorithms, text and textile - and that which disrupts it - radiation, pests, entropy and doubt. In another strand, we follow Ada Lovelace, the 1830s mathematician and pioneer of computer programming. And Penelope, the faithful wife of Odysseus, who wove and unpicked a shroud to put off her 108 suitors.

Contemplative yet clear-sighted, Amalie Smith’s hybrid textile of a novel bares the aching but crucial interwovenness of art and life.