Reviews – Page 805 – What Cathy Read Next…

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my review of The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault, the book I read for the recent #1956Club.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Read Because Someone Recommended Them and although I could have filled a dozen lists with books I’ve been recommended by other book bloggers, I chose to focus on books nominated for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

Wednesday – It wouldn’t be “hump day” without WWW Wednesday, the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…as well as have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading.

Thursday – I published my review of Endless Skies by Jane Cable as part of the blog tour.

Friday – I introduced my Buchan of the Month for October, The Free Fishers by John Buchan.

Saturday – I published my review of The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or so shared my blog posts on social media.

New arrivals

A whole bundle of treats this week!

Winterkill (Dark Iceland #6) by Ragnar Jónasson (eARC, courtesy of Orenda Books)

Easter weekend is approaching, and snow is gently falling in Siglufjörður, the northernmost town in Iceland, as crowds of tourists arrive to visit the majestic ski slopes. Ari Thór Arason is now a police inspector, but he’s separated from his girlfriend, who lives in Sweden with their three-year-old son. A family reunion is planned for the holiday, but a violent blizzard is threatening and there is an unsettling chill in the air.

Three days before Easter, a nineteen-year-old local girl falls to her death from the balcony of a house on the main street. A perplexing entry in her diary suggests that this may not be an accident, and when an old man in a local nursing home writes ‘She was murdered’ again and again on the wall of his room, there is every suggestion that something more sinister lies at the heart of her death…

As the extreme weather closes in, cutting the power and access to Siglufjörður, Ari Thór must piece together the puzzle to reveal a horrible truth … one that will leave no one unscathed.

Chilling, claustrophobic and disturbing, Winterkill marks the startling conclusion to the million-copy bestselling Dark Iceland series and cements Ragnar Jónasson as one of the most exciting authors in crime fiction.

The Second Sleep by Robert Harris (paperback, courtesy of Bookmarks UK)

All civilisations think they are invulnerable. History warns us none is.

1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote Exmoor village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artefacts – coins, fragments of glass, human bones – which the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the past lead to his death?

As Fairfax is drawn more deeply into the isolated community, everything he believes – about himself, his faith and the history of his world – is tested to destruction.

The Stasi Game (Karin Müller #6) by David Young (eARC, courtesy of Zaffre via NetGalley)

A man’s body is found buried in concrete at a building site in the new town district. When People’s Police homicide captain Karin Müller arrives at the scene, she discovers that all of the body’s identifiable features have been removed – including its fingertips.

The deeper Müller digs, the more the Stasi begin to hamper her investigations. She soon realises that this crime is just one part of a clandestine battle between two secret services – the Stasi of East Germany and Britain’s MI6 – to control the truth behind one of the deadliest events of World War II.

337 by M. Jonathan Lee (ARC, courtesy of Hideaway Fall)

337 follows the life of Samuel Darte whose mother vanished when he was in his teens. It was his brother, Tom who found her wedding ring on the kitchen table along with the note. While their father pays the price of his mother’s disappearance, Sam learns that his long-estranged Gramma is living out her last days in a nursing home nearby.

Keen to learn about what really happened that day and realising the importance of how little time there is, he visits her to finally get the truth. Soon it’ll be too late and the family secrets will be lost forever. Reduced to ashes. But in a story like this, nothing is as it seems.

The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. (proof copy, courtesy of Quercus)

A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence.

Isaiah was Samuel’s and Samuel was Isaiah’s. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man – a fellow slave – seeks to gain favour by preaching the master’s gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel’s love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation’s harmony.

Madam by Phoebe Wynne (proof copy, courtesy of Quercus)

Light a fire they can’t put out…

For 150 years, above the Scottish cliffs, Caldonbrae Hall has sat as a beacon of excellence in the ancestral castle of Lord William Hope. A boarding school for girls, it promises a future where its pupils will emerge ‘resilient and ready to serve society’.

Rose Christie, a 26-year-old Classics teacher, is the first new hire for the school in over a decade. At first, Rose feels overwhelmed in the face of this elite establishment, but soon after her arrival she begins to understand that she may have more to fear than her own ineptitude. When Rose stumbles across the secret circumstances surrounding the abrupt departure of her predecessor – a woman whose ghost lingers over everything and who no one will discuss – she realises that there is much more to this institution than she has been led to believe.

As she uncovers the darkness that beats at the heart of Caldonbrae, Rose becomes embroiled in a battle that will threaten her sanity as well as her safety…

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton (proof copy, courtesy of Quercus)

A poignant fictional oral history of the beloved rock ‘n’ roll duo who shot to fame in the 1970s New York, and the dark, fraught secret that lies at the peak of their stardom.

Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Coming of age in Detroit, she can’t imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job – despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar’s amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records.

In early seventies New York City, just as she’s finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Opal’s bold protest and the violence that ensues set off a chain of events that will not only change the lives of those she loves, but also be a deadly reminder that repercussions are always harsher for women, especially black women, who dare to speak their truth.

Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. Sunny thought she knew most of the stories leading up to the cult duo’s most politicized chapter. But as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens to blow up everything.

Provocative and chilling, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev features a backup chorus of unforgettable voices, a heroine the likes of which we’ve not seen in storytelling, and a daring structure, and introduces a bold new voice in contemporary fiction.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Blog Tour/Book Review: The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
Top Ten Tuesday: Halloween – Trick or Treat?
Waiting on Wednesday
Buchan of the Month/Book Review: The Free Fishers by John Buchan
Blog Tour/Extract: Until We Can Forgive by Rosemary Goodacre
Book Review: This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik
Blog Tour/Book Review: Immortal by Jessica Duchen

About the Book

Nature holds the answers for Raynor and her husband Moth. After walking 630 homeless miles along The Salt Path, living on the windswept and wild English coastline; the cliffs, the sky and the chalky earth now feel like their home.

Moth has a terminal diagnosis, but against all medical odds, he seems revitalized in nature. Together on the wild coastal path, with their feet firmly rooted outdoors, they discover that anything is possible.

Now, life beyond The Salt Path awaits and they come back to four walls, but the sense of home is illusive and returning to normality is proving difficult – until an incredible gesture by someone who reads their story changes everything.

A chance to breathe life back into a beautiful farmhouse nestled deep in the Cornish hills; rewilding the land and returning nature to its hedgerows becomes their saving grace and their new path to follow.

The Wild Silence is a story of hope triumphing over despair, of lifelong love prevailing over everything. It is a luminous account of the human spirit’s instinctive connection to nature, and how vital it is for us all.

Format: Hardcover (288 pages) Publisher: Michael Joseph
Publication date: 3rd September 2020 Genre: Memoir, Nonfiction

Find The Wild Silence on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

I recently read – and loved – The Salt Path by Raynor Winn so how could I resist reading this, the follow-up to that book, especially as Raynor Winn took part in this year’s online Henley Literary Festival and I was lucky enough to bag myself a ticket.

In The Wild Silence, Raynor Winn recounts how the writing of The Salt Path came about, namely her growing realization that Moth had no memory of certain events during their time on the South West Coast Path. “He had let go of a moment that hung so brightly on my tree of memory that I could find its glow in any dark place. But for him the light had dimmed and gone.” She decides to transfer the pencilled notes from their trusty guidebook into a more readable form. “If the guidebook could put me on the path, could it do so for Moth too?”

The book goes on to describe the journey to publication of the book that eventually became The Salt Path (not the author’s original preferred title) and readers’ reaction to it. An introvert by nature, Raynor talks honestly about how difficult initially she found it to attend public events to promote the book. However, hearing the very personal responses to it – “Stories of lives lived, loves lost and walks that changed beliefs” – made it easier over time.

Ironically, it is publicity for The Salt Path that leads to an offer too tempting for Raynor and Moth to refuse – the chance to restore a neglected cider farm and increase its biodiversity. As Raynor notes, “The South West Coast Path had led us out of anguish and despair to a place of hope and possibility. And now, by walking it again on paper, The Salt Path had led us to the farm.”

What started as observation in The Salt Path, namely the positive impact on Moth’s health of their time on the South West Coast Path, is translated in The Wild Silence into a passionate thesis on the contribution that exposure to the natural world has on our physical and mental health. In particular, human interaction with the chemicals emitted by plants. “We need the plants, the land, the natural world; we actually physically need it.”

And it seems to work, having an effect on not just Moth’s health but the natural world on and around the farm. “As surely as removing heavy human interference from the land was allowing the wildlife to return to the farm, so Moth was surviving by returning to a more natural state of existence.” That wildlife includes mice, ospreys, herons, badgers, roe deer, moles, foxes, goat moths, skylarks, goldfinches and toads – not all of it outside the farmhouse.

In fact, Moth’s health is restored to such an extent that he proposes they undertake another long walk. I won’t say where except that it’s through a cold, harsh environment.

As in The Salt Path there is some wonderful writing such as this description of sunset over the Cornish coast: “Torn ribbons of colour fluttering across the evening sky, a maypole dance of light“. Or this, describing the impact of the cider farm being restored: “A deep glow of noise, moving like a whisper across land freed from pollution, lifting over pollen-filled banks of new-sown flowers.”

If you loved The Salt Path you’ll enjoy finding out what happened next and immersing yourself in more of Raynor Winn’s passionate advocacy of the benefits of nature. I received an advance review copy courtesy of Michael Joseph via NetGalley.

In three words: Honest, inspiring, heartfelt

Try something similar: The Outrun by Amy Liptrot

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About the Author

Since travelling the South West Coastal Path, Raynor Winn has become a regular long-distance walker and writes about nature, homelessness and wild camping. Her first book, The Salt Path, was a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the 2018 Costa Biography Award. In The Wild Silence, Raynor explores readjusting to life after homelessness. She lives in Cornwall with her husband Moth.

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