Aspiring writers have an unfulfilled dream of producing a debut
novel of such scale and sweep, such innovation and imagination,
that their lofty aspirations often leave them trembling at their keyboards, and their pages remain blank. Well, there is hope, for Susanna Clarke has crafted just such a book.
This sumptuous tale covers the protagonists' attempts to reintroduce magic to a Napoleonic era England. The story is mixed with a wizard's brew of folklore, historical detail, and a ladle each of light and shade. The breadth of characters encompasses the homely, the heroic, and the downright chilling. Not one character has the slightest wooliness or vagueness about them.
I have deliberately avoided a detailed description of the plot, indeed, I was unsure whether to review under the category of '
fantasy' at all; such is the book's uniqueness. It feels as fresh and original as surely Tolkien's must have when he defined the genre with The Fellowship of the Ring.
The triumph of this
novel is that on completion, the reader is left with the impression of having read an historically accurate reconstruction of events; not a work of fiction. Do not let the weight of this hefty tome put you off, Susanna Clarke's narrative will whisk you away with a deft lightness of touch and deposit you in a world at once magical and utterly believable.