PositiveThe Sunday Times (UK)In many ways this is a story about rebirth and the restorative qualities of nature. Baume avoids clichéd notions of inherent benevolence in the bucolic, highlighting instead the tangible realities of their surroundings ... the author’s style is instantly recognisable. Baume writes sustained and exquisitely realised descriptive passages. She teases the extraordinary out of the ordinary by examining her world and the people in it closely and compassionately, with her best writing emerging after what feels like an extended gaze, held long after most would decide there is nothing left to see. With barely any dialogue, this reads like a prose poem, each line freighted with meaning ... There is a sadness here, but a pleasant one. Baume seems to be suggesting that while isolation in an internal sense may be unconquerable, it can at least be understood.
