In an afterword, Clarke tells readers how this story began as a BBC Radio 4 broadcast. Or, rather, she explains how her father\u2019s neurodivergence, her beliefs about the consciousness of trees, and the music of Kate Bush begat a tale in which a young woman sees her future during a walk in a snowy forest. The author also explains how she was certain that Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004) contained a footnote describing the city where her protagonist lives, but that it\u2019s gone now\u2014probably removed by a fairy \u201cfor reasons of his or her own.\u201d It\u2019s laudable that Clarke wants her readers to experience the narrative without preamble, but this backstory reveals her charms as a writer in a way that the story itself does not. Our heroine, Merowdis Scot, feels most at home in the woods and most herself in the company of animals. Even her sister, Ysolde\u2014who comes closer than anyone to understanding her\u2014is no substitute for Merowdis\u2019 pig, her dogs, her many cats, or the spiders that weave their webs undisturbed in her room. Merowdis is taking a winter walk in the company of a trio of her four-legged companions when she encounters a fox and a blackbird and tells the wood of her desire for a child\u2014a \u201cmidwinter child\u2026A child to bring light into the darkness.\u201d Given that Merowdis can\u2019t imagine marrying and, given her ease with animals and unease around people, her wish will require a miracle that\u2019s very different from the miracle found in the Christmas story. Once Merowdis sees her fate, this tale takes on some of the uncanny truth of folklore. Getting to this point, though, means connecting with an \u201cunconventional\u201d heroine who is both familiar and unexceptional in both children\u2019s lit and books for grownups.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In an afterword, Clarke tells readers how this story began as a BBC Radio 4 broadcast. Or, rather, she explains how her father\u2019s neurodivergence, her beliefs about the consciousness of trees, and the music of Kate Bush begat a tale in which a young woman sees her future during a walk in a snowy forest. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-805","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\/805"}],"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=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}