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  • Published: 7 March 2019
  • ISBN: 9781784708030
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $22.99
Categories:

The Western Wind




An ingenious medieval mystery with an unforgettable narrator, by one of the UK’s most acclaimed and daring writers.

**FROM THE AUTHOR OF 2024 BOOKER PRIZE WINNING ORBITAL**

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE 2019**

15th century Oakham, in Somerset; a tiny village cut off by a big river with no bridge. When a man is swept away by the river in the early hours of Shrove Saturday, an explanation has to be found: accident, suicide or murder? The village priest, John Reve, is privy to many secrets in his role as confessor. But will he be able to unravel what happened to the victim, Thomas Newman, the wealthiest, most capable and industrious man in the village? And what will happen if he can’t?

Moving back in time towards the moment of Thomas Newman’s death, the story is related by Reve – an extraordinary creation, a patient shepherd to his wayward flock, and a man with secrets of his own to keep. Through his eyes, and his indelible voice, Harvey creates a medieval world entirely tangible in its immediacy.

  • Published: 7 March 2019
  • ISBN: 9781784708030
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $22.99
Categories:

About the author

Samantha Harvey

Samantha Harvey is the author of The Wilderness, All Is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind. She appeared on the longlists for the Bailey’s Prize and the Man Booker, and the shortlists of the James Tait Black Award, the Orange Prize, the Guardian First Book Award and the Walter Scott Prize. The Wilderness won the Betty Trask Award in 2009. She is a tutor on the MA course in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

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Praise for The Western Wind

'Beautifully rendered, deeply affecting, thoroughly thoughtful'

New York Times
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