Samantha Harvey

15th century Oakham, in Somerset; a tiny village cut off by a big river with no bridge. When a man is swept away by the river in the early hours of Shrove Saturday, an explanation has to be found: accident, suicide or murder? The village priest, John Reve, is privy to many secrets in his role as confessor. But will he be able to unravel what happened to the victim, Thomas Newman, the wealthiest, most capable and industrious man in the village? And what will happen if he can't? Moving back in time towards the moment of Thomas Newman's death, the story is related by Reve - an extraordinary creation, a patient shepherd to his wayward flock, and a man with secrets of his own to keep. Through his eyes, and his indelible voice, Harvey creates a medieval world entirely tangible in its immediacy.

The Western Wind

Brigid Hogan

Astounding book. Want to immediately read again except it’s due to the library.

Moray Lyle McIntosh

Easter is drawing close in the rural village of Oakham in the fifteenth-century. The settlement is isolated by the river and attempts to increase prosperity by connecting it to the outside world have faltered after plans to build a bridge fall through. And in the aftermath of the collapse Thomas Newman, the wealthiest man in the village, is swept away and drowned. But how did Newman end in the river? The local Dean is suspicious and determined to put someone to the flame for murder while John Reve, the parish priest, discovers pieces of the truth through conversation and confession and is equally desperate to see an accident and to protect his parishioners from his superior’s zeal.

The wonderfully complex and original structure definitely contributes so much to the enjoyment of reading and the freshness of the narrative. The backwards flow creates something utterly compelling. The puzzle of characters and relationships are deftly unravelled as the story draws slowly full circle, constantly changing as new revelations and earlier events shed surprising lights on things that had gone before. It is quite a feat to keep everything so firmly connected and stable and to build such anticipation in a backwards-told story and Harvey manages to maintain the tension and anticipation while perfectly preserving the internal logic of the story.

The lynchpin of the story and the community is Reve himself, it is through him that the different facets of the narrative are revealed and his confessional (possibly the first in England) is the place that secrets are unearthed and lies told and uncovered. Reve’s commitment to his flock is paramount and while he struggles to protect them he also wrestles with a personal crisis of faith, with Harvey subtly probing the relationship between the social and the religious role of the clergy at a time when they were often the spoke around which their communities revolved. The dead man Newman is equally crucial though we only meet him through recollection and the nature of his character is as important a mystery as his death. It is revealed slowly and piecemeal and as it changes, constructed by the memories and confessions of his neighbours, it moulds the story around it in quite unexpected ways.

The Western Wind is an evocative tale of conscience, guilt, desire, and the struggles between religion and superstition, the body and flesh. Harvey builds her characters around these universal pressures which continue to shape lives even today. As much as things change, so much they stay the same. Her people may be struggling with a reality quite different from our own (or at least from my own) but their thoughts, loves and fears are a recognisable and prescient today as they were five hundred years ago.

Kylie Pace

Wonderful writing. I enjoyed the different structure and how vivid the 15th century feels in these pages.

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE 2019** 15th century Oakham, in Somerset; a tiny village cut off by a big river with no bridge. When a man is swept away by the river in the early hours of Shrove Saturday, an explanation has to be found- accident, suicide or murder? The village priest, John Reve, is privy to many secrets in his role as confessor. But will he be able to unravel what happened to the victim, Thomas Newman, the wealthiest, most capable and industrious man in the village? And what will happen if he can't? Moving back in time towards the moment of Thomas Newman's death, the story is related by Reve - an extraordinary creation, a patient shepherd to his wayward flock, and a man with secrets of his own to keep. Through his eyes, and his indelible voice, Harvey creates a medieval world entirely tangible in its immediacy.

Gary Homewood

The wealthiest man in a tiny isolated medieval village goes missing, presumed dead. Told from the perspective of the village priest, troubled with his own faith and conscience, as he hears the confessions of the superstitious townsfolk. Plus the ambiguous motivations of an investigating Dean. Cleverly plotted in reverse chronology, the links between the villagers slowly revealed. The descriptions of Medieval life, the smells, landscape and weather are realistic and vivid.

Also learnt a few old English words.

The Western Wind

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