All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison - #bookreview

 

Last night I lay awake again, remembering the day the Hunt ran me down in Hulver Wood when I was just a girl.  It was December, as it is now, and I had ventured out into the icy afternoon to cut come green boughs for the house...

***

The autumn of 1933 is the most beautiful Edie Mather can remember, though the Great War still casts a shadow over the cornfields of her beloved home, Wych Farm.

When charismatic, outspoken Constance FitzAllen arrives from London to write about fading rural traditions, she takes an interest in fourteen-year-old Edie, showing her a kindness she has never known before. But the older woman isn't quite what she seems.

As harvest time approaches and pressures mount on the whole community, Edie must find a way to trust her instincts and save herself from disaster.

***

This is a heartbreaking book that was worth every moment that I dedicated to reading it. It was suggested by one of the members of my Book Club. I must confess that until then I had not come across this book or the author.

In many ways it is an unsettling story. We witness the unravelling of the mind of the main character. Edith is a fourteen year old girl who is befriended by an older woman, Constance, who is a visitor from London and is not quite what she seems. As the reader, I suspected that she had an agenda of her own, but it is not until the end of the book that her motivations become apparent.

What we observe in this book is also the unravelling of a way of life. The book is written with a gentleness that reflects the way of life in a rural community. On one hand, it depicts the beauty of the countryside, and it's slow pace of life, but on the other, it demonstrates the harsh realities that farmers were facing during the period in which the book is set. 

The environment in which this book is set is all-consuming. The way of life is not described in sentimental terms, and it does not depict a romantically idyllic version of country life. What it does do is to demonstrate the hardships afforded such families as they faced the change of farming with mechanisation, coupled with poverty and debt.

The book is perfectly paced for its subject matter. I enjoyed the slow rhythm of the writing, coupled with the slow-moving pace of life it depicted.

This is a fantastic book that I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend wholeheartedly. 

ISBN: 978 1408897973

Publisher:  Bloomsbury Publishing

Formats:  e-book, audio, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages:  352 (paperback)

About the Author:

Melissa Harrison is the author of the novels Clay and At Hawthorn Time, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize, and one work of non-fiction, Rain, which was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. She is a nature writer, critic and columnist for The Times, the Financial Times and the Guardian, among others. Her new novel All Among the Barley was published in August, 2018.

(author media courtesy of Good Reads)

(all opinions are my own)