This was astonishinly well written. Lesley Glaister creates such resonant, breathing WWI characters and balances them in a plot that feels both inevitable and crescendoing. The historical details are sharp but lightly embedded and the characters feel as if they are psychological products of their time - in particular her internal voice for the maimed soldier Vincent, with all of his speech cliches and early 20th century cadences, draws you so closely into the reality of his world, that his failed schemes and disappointments feel almost painful to ride alongside. It's brutally dark, in the vein of Ruth Rendell's Barbara Vine books, but unfolds naturalistically - an extraordinary feat to pull off. It reminded me of Sarah Waters but with more bite.
WW1 is over. As a nurse at the front, Clementine has found and lost love, but has settled for middle class marriage. Vincent had half his face blown off, and wants more than life offers now. Drawn together by their shared experiences at the Front, they have a compulsive relationship, magnetic and parasitic, played out with blackmail and ending in disaster for one of them.
The voice is what drives this book. It's a masterclass in historical ventriloquism. Crace weaves iambic pentameter and rural metaphor through his prose to embroider Early Modern textures out of simple language. The result is beautifully readable, while still conjuring a strangeness that reminds us we are in a different, past world.
The story blends fable with naturalism, bringing to life the rhythms of a village frozen in medieval time, hostile to outsiders, terrified of their way of life being stolen or encroached upon. Crace uses the closed community setting to probe into the muddy, private vengeances that bubble up when people are unregulated by social norms, and pits the question of cold capitalist development against the continuation of a content but insular society.
Winner of the 2015 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Winner of the 2014 James Tait Black Prize Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize Shortlisted for the 2013 Goldsmiths Prize Shortlisted for the 2014 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
As late summer steals in and the final pearls of barley are gleaned, a village comes under threat. A trio of outsiders - two men and a dangerously magnetic woman - arrives on the woodland borders triggering a series of events that will see Walter Thirsk's village unmade in just seven days: the harvest blackened by smoke and fear, cruel…
This was my surprise hit read of the year. I picked it up with trepidation as research for a book I'm writing, and quickly fell in love with the pace and the drama. It's written in middle Scots (which is much easier to understand when read aloud; the phonetics suddenly make the words pop out) and has the real feel of a story designed to capture an aural audience's attention. Barbour, writing around 1375, was the OG cinematographer - his battle descriptions are incredibly vivid. But he also manages the pace of the story so brilliantly, switching scene when one begins to drag, or pausing to take stock of the action and the main players. Netflix take note, this is a 10-part series waiting to happen.
This is a full translation of the Scottish epic "The Bruce". The poem is regarded as one of the key sources for the life of Robert the Bruce. It contains detailed notes explaining and simplifying the narrative, as well as contemporary accounts. The book includes "The Declaration of Arbroath".
Isobel Duguid and her friend, the famous castrato Clessidro, are stars of the Edinburgh Musical Society. Despite her cavalier attitude towards holding a tune, Clessidro’s friendship and her own shocking murder ballads keep Isobel on stage and enjoying an opulent lifestyle in Auld Reekie.
Yet one night a note arrives from the mysterious Mrs Abercorn, regarding Isobel’s most notorious song, The Fiddler’s Wrath. It’s the tale of a prima donna who died of heartbreak after her husband committed murder and was sent to the gallows. Isobel is intrigued.
But Mrs Abercorn’s curiosity is far more than a fickle interest and the truth is more complicated than anyone could have imagined. As Isobel recounts rising through the social classes, her role in this ill-fated tune is brought to light, awakening the chilling retribution of a once buried secret.
