2 Books Like The Bruce

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.

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.