After hearing such wonderful things from several blogging friends about the short story collection Sandlands by Rosy Thornton, I was absolutely thrilled when the author offered me a copy. I put it on my 10 Books of Summer 2017 list to make sure I got to it at last…I can’t believe I waited so long!
Sandlands is a gentle and magical collection of sixteen stories that follow the creatures and people of the Suffolk landscape. Sadly I couldn’t possible mention them all here, even though I loved them all, or this post would be ridiculously long. However some of my favourites included: High House, about the enigmatic Mr Napish feeding a fox rescued from the floods; The Watcher of Souls, about an owl that has been guarding a cache of long-lost love letters; Nightingale’s Return, where the nightingale’s song lures a foreigner home; and The Witch Bottle, that see’s love and a curse echoing through the centuries.
Through the landscape and creatures in these wonderful stories, the author has cleverly linked the past to the present, and generations of lives are beautifully intertwined. I found myself absolutely swept away and I even found it quite hard to put down this collection of tales; full of life, death, nature, animals, and all with a delightful touch of magical realism. Likewise though I was also able to dip into one story at a time when I had a free moment. What worked so well about this collection for me was how these were all individual stories, which I could read one at a time when I had time, likewise though you could keep reading through as the setting links these stories so well, similar to a novel.
Overall, I thought Sandlands was an enchanting collection of short stories, which took me on a journey through the nature, lives and history of Suffolk. I would love to read more by this author. Great read.
Thank you to the author for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Have you read this? Any recommendations for other nature filled short stories?
10 Books of Summer 2017 – 1/10
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