Fifteen Wild Decembers
Karen Powell
£14.99
Mr B's review
Fictional yet inspired by true life, the book tells the story of Emily Brontë growing up in rural Yorkshire, within a family driven by morals, sickness, sisterly love, a passion for storytelling and a thirst for recognition.
The childhood of Emily and her sisters exists within a cocoon of family, shared imaginative stories and the surrounding moors. When the sisters move to school and overseas as governesses, their sense of identity and the compulsion to write are broken. Their wild passionate natures thirst for creative freedom and home.
A strong sense of place, suffering, repressed desires, independence, and flashes of madness felt oddly and delightfully recognisable to read as a someone who loves the works of the Brontë sisters. – Katrina
Description
Isolated from society, Emily Bronte and her siblings spend their days inventing elaborate fictional realms or roaming the wild moors above their family home in Yorkshire. When the time comes for them to venture out into the world to earn a living, each of them struggles to adapt, but for Emily the change is catastrophic. Torn from the landscape to which she has become so passionately bound, she is simply unable to function.
To the outside world, Emily Bronte appears taciturn and unexceptional, but beneath the surface her mind is in a creative ferment. A violent phenomenon is about to burst forth that will fuse her imaginary world with the landscape of her beloved Yorkshire and change the literary world forever.
Fifteen Wild Decembers is the dazzling second novel from a writer who has been compared to Shirley Hazzard and Graham Greene, and whose first novel was described as ‘utterly stunning’, ‘mesmerizing’ and hailed as ‘a masterpiece.’
Publisher Review
“Powell is a talent to watch.” * Lisa Appignanesi, author of Everyday Madness * “Utterly stunning, with prose that reads like a painting.” * Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory on The River Within * “Powell’s style and tone reminiscent of an earlier generation of reticent yet emotionally brutal writers like Shirley Hazzard and Graham Greene. A mesmerizing escape.” * Kirkus Revies on The River Within (starred review) * “Evocative and engrossing.” * Heat Magazine on The River Within *
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