On a family holiday in Kent, England, the meticulously organized August and her husband, Andrew, visit Shepherd Neame, Britain\u2019s oldest brewery, for a tasting tour. August is suddenly transported to an alternate timeline when the historic beer, called Five Bees, was first brewed. Waking up naked and confused, August stumbles to a doorstep, guided by a black cat named Hazel. Margaret, a local healer and wise woman, welcomes the strange traveler to the community. Mental to-do lists and a desire to get back to her daughter, Ripley, rage in August\u2019s mind as she slowly learns Margaret\u2019s way of living by the lunar cycle and the healing powers of natural ingredients. But all is not well in the village: The fields of \u201ccosmos\u201d mushrooms that provide sporelock\u2014a turf mixed from \u201cthe pulp of the fungi with hay and manure\u201d used for building\u2014are being destroyed at \u201cthe hands of the Divine Sphere,\u201d a patriarchal religious organization that threatens Margaret\u2019s way of life and destroys the surrounding ecosystem. A vast mycelium network called the Mother, which women who are in tune with the natural world have connected to for generations, warns, \u201cwe must keep the balance.\u201d Margaret and her small group must find a way to resist the Divine Sphere and continue their practice undetected while August searches for a way back home. Youens crafts compelling inner voices for August and Margaret, and the pages radiate with the warmth the author brings to their world. The extended metaphor of weaving effectively emphasizes the connection between the past and present timelines, which is maintained by individuals who work with the natural world to create the contemporary beer. Margaret\u2019s emotional history is delivered with care. At times, the narrative dips into a \u201ctelling\u201d rather than \u201cshowing\u201d mode, but the magical elements of the story are consistently captivating.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On a family holiday in Kent, England, the meticulously organized August and her husband, Andrew, visit Shepherd Neame, Britain\u2019s oldest brewery, for a tasting tour. August is suddenly transported to an alternate timeline when the historic beer, called Five Bees, was first brewed. Waking up naked and confused, August stumbles to a doorstep, guided by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}