Once Upon A River
After discovering Diane Setterfield in December, I was thrilled to learn of her latest book, Once Upon A River. Set by the river Thames in the 19th century, Setterfield takes her readers on a journey where the river touches many lives and creates miracles of its own.
On a dark midwinter’s night, an injured stranger bursts through the door of an inn by the Thames carrying a dead child. Hours later, the child is alive. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? None are sure, but the discovery of this mysterious, mute girl sets many lives on a path none of them expected.
Full of folklore, romance, suspense, magic and family bonds, Setterfield’s latest story is as enjoyable as her other works.
One of my favourite parts is how easily Setterfield navigated the many different perspectives she told this story in. She deftly moved from the innkeeper Margot to the nurse Rita to the injured stranger to the successful farmer Robert Armstrong and the many other characters that were impacted by the child’s discovery. It can be easy to lose track of each character’s story, but Setterfield showed her skill as a writer and gave readers a story that flowed almost like the Thames.
The cover was also the perfect blend of imagery and metaphor. The inn where the child was brought to is called The Swan and to have a swan’s neck flow like a river on the cover was a brilliant idea. It made me look twice when I spotted it on the shelf. The Kindle edition’s version was also lovely, but I like the hardcover copy better.
The theme of family is very present in this story, as it was in her other novel The Thirteenth Tale. In Once Upon A River, Setterfield showed that families are complicated through Robert Armstrong and his stepson Robin. She also tested the bond between husband and wife through a couple whose daughter was abducted two years prior. I got so invested in these individual stories that I could hardly put the book down.
Overall, Once Upon A River is more than just about answering the question of where the little girl came from. It’s a story that truly asks what lengths people will go to for the ones they love and how, ultimately, we are all travelling on our own river.
Once Upon A River Rating: ★★★★
On a dark midwinter’s night, an injured stranger bursts through the door of an inn by the Thames carrying a dead child. Hours later, the child is alive. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? None are sure, but the discovery of this mysterious, mute girl sets many lives on a path none of them expected.
Full of folklore, romance, suspense, magic and family bonds, Setterfield’s latest story is as enjoyable as her other works.
One of my favourite parts is how easily Setterfield navigated the many different perspectives she told this story in. She deftly moved from the innkeeper Margot to the nurse Rita to the injured stranger to the successful farmer Robert Armstrong and the many other characters that were impacted by the child’s discovery. It can be easy to lose track of each character’s story, but Setterfield showed her skill as a writer and gave readers a story that flowed almost like the Thames.
The cover was also the perfect blend of imagery and metaphor. The inn where the child was brought to is called The Swan and to have a swan’s neck flow like a river on the cover was a brilliant idea. It made me look twice when I spotted it on the shelf. The Kindle edition’s version was also lovely, but I like the hardcover copy better.
The theme of family is very present in this story, as it was in her other novel The Thirteenth Tale. In Once Upon A River, Setterfield showed that families are complicated through Robert Armstrong and his stepson Robin. She also tested the bond between husband and wife through a couple whose daughter was abducted two years prior. I got so invested in these individual stories that I could hardly put the book down.
Overall, Once Upon A River is more than just about answering the question of where the little girl came from. It’s a story that truly asks what lengths people will go to for the ones they love and how, ultimately, we are all travelling on our own river.
Once Upon A River Rating: ★★★★