All Among the Barley

Harrison, Melissa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408897970 ISBN 13: 9781408897973

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019

'A masterpiece' JON MCGREGOR
'Impossible to forget' THE TIMES
'Astonishing' GUARDIAN
'Startling' FINANCIAL TIMES

WINNER OF THE EU PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

'BOOK OF THE YEAR' NEW STATESMAN, OBSERVER, IRISH TIMES, BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE

The fields were eternal, our life the only way of things, and I would do whatever was required of me to protect it.

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.

Review:

Powerful and beautifully written . Harrison is the traditional being, a nature writer with a knowledge and eye for detail that recalls Thomas Hardy and John McGahern. And that makes this novel impossible to forget (The Times)

A work of rare magic (Helen Macdonald, author of 'H is for Hawk')

An incredible evocation of one particular corner of rural England in the 1930s ... with this novel she's done what I've long suspected she would: she's written a masterpiece (Jon McGregor, author of 'Reservoir 13')

A powerful and lyrical coming-of-age story from a writer who is fast establishing herself as one of the best contemporary exponents of the pastoral novel (Observer)

A deeply atmospheric work, steeped in the rhythms and traditions of the English countryside and the rhythms and traditions of its literature. Its texture - dense, hypnotic and beautifully rendered - is oddly daring. The fusing of ancient natural cycles and farming techniques with powerfully descriptive prose and rich characterisation feels luxuriant on the page . Startling (Financial Times)

The sleeper hit of the year (New Stateman)

A really fine, absorbing novel (Jonathan Coe)

A novel of acute psychology and subtle political sense, portrayed in language of sheer largesse. It describes a land resplendent and saturated with summer, but known dangers flicker on the edges: debt, crop failure, illness and accident . Set in Suffolk, mainly in 1934, it is an exquisitely intelligent take on the pastoral form (TLS)

Truly towering . nature, land, nationalism, war, death, patriarchy and the whole damn thing (Giles Coren)

Nostalgia, nationalism and superstition all play their part in an acutely observed narrative that is as pertinent to the here and now as it is evocative of its time and place (The Best New Fiction Mail on Sunday)

Book Description:

The autumn of that year was the most beautiful I can remember.

All Among the Barley is a classic novel of rural life with unsettling modern relevance. Set on a Suffolk farm between the wars, it features fourteen-year-old Edie and her family.