Recommendations from our site
“The Western Wind gives us an in-depth immersion into this small, rural village. It’s the only one of the books that I chose that is set in a village. It’s an exceptionally powerful description of a locale…What Harvey does is very clever: she tells the story backwards. It starts with a certain day and then it goes back in time through different days. It was billed as a whodunnit, though I actually don’t think that’s the best way of describing this book. It is much more about atmosphere and a particular world and uncovering the details of different characters’ motivations and ideas rather than solving what happened.” Read more...
Best Medieval Historical Fiction
Marion Turner, Biographer
“Sam Harvey said she thought she’d written a novel about religion and was surprised to find she’d written a first-class historical novel. But that’s the best type of historical novel, when the writer is so deeply immersed that period setting is almost by-the-way.” Read more...
The Best of Historical Fiction: The 2019 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist
Katharine Grant, Historical Novelist
