The Western Wind
The Western Wind is a 2018 novel by the English author Samantha Harvey. Set in the Somerset village of Oakham in 1491, it tells the story of the death of Thomas Newman, a wealthy landowner, from the perspective of John Reve, the village priest. The narrative structure is unorthodox, recounting four days in reverse order, beginning with Shrove Tuesday and ending with Shrove Saturday, the day of Newman's disappearance.
The novel initially appears to follow the style of a detective story, as Reve assists the local dean in investigating Newman's disappearance and establishing if any of the villagers played a role in his death. The dean settles on two suspects: the local landowner, Lord Townshend, and Sarah Spenser, a gravely ill woman who falsely confesses to Newman's murder. In the final section (chronologically the first), it is revealed that Reve knew throughout the story that Newman's death was suicide, and that he has hidden the truth from the dean in order to protect Herry Carter, a young parishioner who was with Newman when he died.
Critics praised the book's lyrical prose and the construction of Reve as a character: several described him as an unreliable narrator. The novel drew comparisons with Harvey's earlier works for its philosophical tone and fascination with memory, as well as with the works of Hilary Mantel, Virginia Woolf, Ian McEwan and Marilynne Robinson. Some critics found the historical setting unconvincing, and the novel's philosophical and theological diversions to be ponderous and distracting. The anachronic narration was variously seen as reinforcing the novel's plot, as a source of satisfaction and cleverness, and as an over-complicated distraction from the story. The novel won the 2019 Staunch Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction.
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