"This unique, eloquent, stirring novel stars Helm, a wind in Cumbria, alongside a supporting cast of humans through the ages. "
I fell hook, line, and sinker for this gorgeous novel, and rather like Helm, the book itself sits both lightly and with weight, capricious and joyful and foreboding. It also gives me a knowing nudge and delights in my inability to express just how wonderful I think it is.
Helm itself is a wind that dwells in the Eden Valley in Cumbria, it may be a little smug in being the only named wind in the UK, yet it has relatives in other locations around the world. Author Sarah Hall writes with a beautifully descriptive pen as she personifies this wind and sets a number of human characters into action through the ages and pages to be observed.
Each member of the supporting cast is affected by this weather system, their stories come and go, interspersed with facts and figures, tempers and tantrums. While each character is divided by time and connected by Helm, there appears to be no ending as tales bleed into the elements, to arise as folklore, archeology, or stories yet to be finished or told.
I felt rather emotional as I read, feelings flittered and spun as they responded to Helm and there were times when I flinched and ached with sorrow as my mind took me further in and further out. I just had to choose this as both a Liz Pick of the Month and a LoveReading Star Book as it has joined my list of favourite books. Soul-stirringly memorable and beautiful, Helm heals as it wounds, soothes as it provokes, and engages as it destroys. Highly recommended.
** AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW **'Sarah Hall's writing has conquered the body and the soul and now it conquers the wind itself.' DAISY JOHNSON'Ye Gods, Ms Hall is talented.' DAVID MITCHELL'Incandescently good ... sexy and funny and erudite and strange.' SARAH PERRY, GUARDIAN'You can always rely on Hall to blow you away.' I PAPERA wondrous, elemental novel from 'a writer of show-stopping genius' (Guardian).Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind - a subject of folklore and wonder - who has blasted the sublime landscape of the Eden Valley since the very dawn of time.This is Helm's life story, formed from the chronicles of those the wind enchanted: the Neolithic tribe who tried to placate it, the Dark Age wizard priest who wanted to banish it, the Victorian steam engineer who attempted to capture it - and the farmer's daughter who fell in love. But now Dr Selima Sutar, surrounded by measuring instruments, alone in her observation hut, fears the end is nigh.Vital and audacious, Helm is the elemental tale of a unique life force - and of a relationship: between nature and people, neither of whom can weather life without the other.'I can think of no other British writer whose talent so consistently thrills, surprises and staggers.' BENJAMIN MYERS'I'm awed . I wouldn't think a novel could be at once so taut and so multifarious, expanding one's sense of what fiction can do.' SARAH MOSS'Helm is just a brilliant achievement . I can think of no better writer to give voice to a natural phenomenon, because she is one herself.' KIRSTIN INNES'A spectacular epic tapestry. Nobody could tell the story of our inextricable relationship with wild nature as beautifully as Sarah Hall.' LEE SCHOFIELD'I forced myself to read slowly so it wouldn't end, and still consumed Helm as if starving. This is a novel to wallow in, it's rich and snug and feels wonderful.' COURTTIA NEWLAND'A big, celebratory book, in places delightfully playful, in others as tight and breathless as a thriller.' ANDREW MILLER
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
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** AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW **'Sarah Hall's writing has conquered the body and the soul and now it conquers the wind itself.' DAISY JOHNSON'Ye Gods, Ms Hall is talented.' DAVID MITCHELL'Incandescently good ... sexy and funny and erudite and strange.' SARAH PERRY, GUARDIAN'You can always rely on Hall to blow you away.' I PAPERA wondrous, elemental novel from 'a writer of show-stopping genius' (Guardian).Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind - a subject of folklore and wonder - who has blasted the sublime landscape of the Eden Valley since the very dawn of time.This is Helm's life story, formed from the chronicles of those the wind enchanted: the Neolithic tribe who tried to placate it, the Dark Age wizard priest who wanted to banish it, the Victorian steam engineer who attempted to capture it - and the farmer's daughter who fell in love. But now Dr Selima Sutar, surrounded by measuring instruments, alone in her observation hut, fears the end is nigh.Vital and audacious, Helm is the elemental tale of a unique life force - and of a relationship: between nature and people, neither of whom can weather life without the other.'I can think of no other British writer whose talent so consistently thrills, surprises and staggers.' BENJAMIN MYERS'I'm awed .
Helm features in the following genres: Book Club Recommendations, Liz Robinson's Picks of the Month, Recommendations, Star Books, General Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Metaphysical / philosophical fiction, Narrative theme: Environmental issues / the natural world, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss
Paperback, Hardback. Not Available.
Helm was written by Sarah Hall and published by Faber & Faber
Helm has 368 pages
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