For some years the pinned Tweet on Liz Fenwick’s profile has been about kindness, and it struck me that in many ways The River Between Us is too. The First World War heroine, Alice, must learn to be kind to others, and her modern counterpart Theo needs to be kind to herself.
Their stories are more than linked – they are woven together – by place and by so much more. But as always with Liz Fenwick’s books, it isn’t so much the resolution of the mystery that is important, it is the journey itself. And this is an especially rich and sensual one.
Newly divorced Theo buys a ramshackle cottage on the Cornish banks of the River Tamar, once part of the estate belonging to the manor house, now hotel, on the Devon side. The seeds of mystery are planted quickly, as Theo discovers a box of letters dating from the First World War, and when her grandmother dies it comes to light that she had secrets of her own.
In the historical narrative, which begins in 1914, Alice is a rebellious debutante, determined to speak out for force-fed suffragettes to the king and queen during her season. When she does so she is banished to Abbotswood in Devon, where she is attracted to the ghillie, Zachariah Carne.
The coincidences may fall a little too thick and fast for some, but this takes none of the enjoyment from the story. Liz Fenwick’s prose takes the reader from seeing Abbotswood as a prison for a young girl, to casting it in a dream-like quality, full of beauty and wonder, as Theo falls in love. In this book the tiniest of details matter – the tying of flies, the shells in the shell house, the flowers and their meanings. And that is brilliance of it.
But The River Between Us is more than an exhibition of faultless prose; the characters leap from the page and sink into your heart. Both contemporary and historical plots are complex and resonate with each other, and by the end of the story all the strands are as neatly woven together as DNA.
Books as good as this one are the reason I don’t read when I am writing a first draft, because they have the power to transport you to a different world, even when you aren’t physically turning the pages. But I am discovering they are excellent to read when editing; tomorrow I need to return to my own work in progress, inspired to make it so much better.
Publisher’s blurb:
Following the breakdown of her marriage, Theo has bought a tumbledown cottage on the banks of the river Tamar which divides Cornwall and Devon. The peace and tranquillity of Boatman’s Cottage, nestled by the water, is just what she needs to heal.
Yet soon after her arrival, Theo discovers a stash of hidden letters tied with a ribbon, untouched for more than a century. The letters – sent from the battlefields of France during WW1 – tell of a young servant from the nearby manor house, Abbotswood, and his love for a woman he was destined to lose.
As she begins to bring Boatman’s Cottage and its gardens back to life, Theo pieces together a story of star-crossed lovers played out against the river, while finding her own new path to happiness.
The River Between Us beautifully explores the mystery and secrets of a long-forgotten love affair, and is published by Harper Fiction on 10th June.