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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Survival skills for wintry weather: The Year without Summer & Snow, Dog, Foot

14/2/2020

4 Comments

 
These two recent reads explore physical and psychological survival, or otherwise, in extreme weather conditions. The first is a historical novel about the devastating human, climactic and economic consequences of a volcanic eruption in Indonesia. The second is a translated novella about vulnerable hermit overwintering in the Italian Alps. If you choose to read either of these, you won’t be disappointed.

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The Year without Summer by Guinevere Glasfurd

In April 1815, a volcano erupted on an island in Indonesia. Twelve thousand people perished immediately and up to a further 100,000 died of disease or starvation in subsequent weeks. It wasn’t until the middle of the last century that research revealed that the eruption was responsible for a global drop in temperature leading to floods in Europe and drought in North America. Across the northern hemisphere crop failures led to famine and social unrest. In her second novel, Guinevere Glasfurd reimagines this period from the perspective of six of those affected. Who can resist a historical novel with echoes of our own turbulent times?
 
Henry Hogg is the doctor on a ship well equipped to fend off attacks from pirates but inadequate to the needs of islanders suffering third-degree burns. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is a young mother off to spend the summer in Switzerland with her partner, Percy Shelley, and stepsister Claire, who lives in the shadow of Lord Byron, eventually finding inspiration for her story despite the incessant rain. In England, another creative, John Constable, paints between the cloudbursts, hoping to marry when he finally earns enough from his art.
 
Further down the social scale, Sarah Hobbs, a farm labourer who finds her pay reduced as prices soar, joins the protests. Hope Peter returns from the Napoleonic wars to find his mother dead, their home demolished and a fence erected to replace it. Over in Vermont, preacher Charles Whitlock promises his congregation their faith will save them, with disastrous results.
 
It’s a testament to the author’s skill that she maintains our interest across a cast of characters whose fates are connected but never meet. I’m very happy to have this sit on my bookshelves alongside the short-story collection Protest and the novel The Song of Peterloo. Thanks to publishers Two Roads for my proof copy.


Snow, Dog, Foot by Claudio Morandini
translated by J Ockenden

When Adelmo Farandola scrambles down the mountain to stock up on provisions to see him through the winter, the proprietor of the village shop is surprised. According to her, he was there only a week earlier: is she toying with him or is he is losing his mind?
 
Adelmo doesn’t much like people. He isn’t particularly fond of the old dog that attaches itself to him on the wearying walk back up to his isolated cabin. He certainly isn’t keen to converse with the young ranger who tries to befriend him. In the summer, when tourists come knocking, looking to buy honey or cheese, he chases them away with stones.
 
Winter brings snow, walling him into the cabin and blocking the light. It brings hunger, confused memories, discussions with the dog. But Adelmo’s more resilient than most, having battled hunger and freezing temperatures in caves and tunnels as a fugitive in the war. If he’s mad, it must be from the incessant noise of the overhead cables in the village where he lived as a child. Yet even he’s nonplussed at the sight of a human foot uncovered by the melting snow.
 
Claudio Morandini’s sixth novel, first published in Italian in 2015, is a beautifully compassionate story of an old man estranged from society gradually becoming estranged from himself. Whether due to dementia, psychosis or social isolation, the author perfectly encapsulates how his attempts to safeguard his shreds of sanity pitch him deeper into the muddled maelstrom of his mind. Thanks to Peirene Press for my review copy. A rare five stars from me.

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With such a strongly portrayed canine character, it’s a pity I hadn’t read this before wrangling my 99-word story for last week’s flash fiction challenge.
 
If the drama of unravelling in a confined space appeals to you, you might enjoy my second novel, Underneath, about a man whose life changes direction when he buys a house with a cellar. If you subscribe to my email newsletter, you’re in with the chance of winning a signed copy of my next novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, about a woman locked up in a psychiatric hospital for fifty years.


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Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
4 Comments
Norah Colvin
18/2/2020 11:28:27 am

I like the sound of both these books, Anne, and appreciate your recommendations. I'm adding them to my never-ending list and looking forward to reading Matilda Windsor is Coming Home as soon as it is released. I know I will enjoy it as much as I have your other novels and short stories.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
19/2/2020 03:48:55 pm

Thank you, Norah. Snow Dog is the shorter of the two, so perhaps you'll find a space for it?
And I'm taking a break from my edits of Matilda Windsor to reply to you right now!

Reply
D. Avery
19/2/2020 02:09:55 am

Ha! Rangers, dogs, and Vermonters! I was thinking about how some Vermonters are still talking about that summer that wasn’t as I read and Bam, we’re in there. Of course some that are happy to talk about that well known historical event don’t want to talk about current events, not logically anyway.
These both sound like good reads; both reminded me of Underland, a nonfiction book that I recently finished, with the references to the caves and isolation in the one and the global climate event in the other.
You know what you should do? You should get a dog and read nonfiction tomes aloud to it.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
19/2/2020 03:55:40 pm

I was thinking of you when we got to Vermont and am very interested that people are still talking about that non-summer – sadly not surprised they're talking less about current climate change. There are dreadful floods in the UK at the moment which will affect the summer harvest – but I wonder how much will notice as we plunder the crops from the Third World.
And what a great suggestion for me to get a dog and read it non-fiction! Somehow I am more likely to write a post on fictional dogs I've met in my time.

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