(Faber & Faber, $38.99)
Fans of apple cider will know that some of the best comes from Somerset in England’s West Country, which is where this riveting novel is set. And if “cider” and “riveting” don’t usually go hand in hand, it is testament to Maria ocCann’s significant skill that she has made it so and set her intriguing story in the 17th century to boot.
Jonathan Dymond is 26 years old, a good son to doting parents and a bit of a geek when it comes to turning apples into cider. His idea of fun is loading up his mobile cider press and doing the rounds of friends and neighbours to turn their fruit into drink.
Woo hoo!
Yes, Jon loves his mum and respects his dad, but when he finds a fragment of a letter suggesting there may be more to the recent death of his uncle than meets the eye, he smells adventure, perhaps for the first time, and sets off from his quiet, harmonious home life to visit his newly widowed aunt, a right old battle-axe.
As secrets are squeezed out of the family fruit, events start to seriously sour for young Jonathan, an innocent teetering on the brink of manhood and not exactly falling in the right direction.
With a hint of vengeance, a taste of romance, a dash of witchcraft and a heavy dose of mystery, this is one intoxicating brew. And if Jonathan’s mobile cider press is a figment of Maria ocCann’s imagination, a seminal event in the book – the incident at the Guild Hall – is not. It’s something that really happened, not a stone’s throw from where the author now lives. I won’t tell you any more because I want you to read this book, but that true-life event sparked The Wilding. A wilding, by the way, is a “bastard” tree that grows up without having been specifically planted.
Get the gist?
one of my favourite reads this year and long-listed for the orange Prize (more my cup of tea than some of the other big, fancy book awards).
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