Rating: 5/5
Review:
Outstandingly good
This is outstandingly good. I thought Days Without End was
brilliant; A Thousand Moons is even better, I think.
Told in the first
person by Winona, the Lakota Native American girl we met in Days
Without End, it is the story of the immediately post-Civil War events
in West Tennessee where they have settled on Lige Magan’s farm.
Barry conjures the atmosphere of the time as pre-war attitudes to
race and slavery begin to re-assert themselves and continues to
create fine, believable characters and an enthralling story.
What makes this
really special, though, is Winona’s narrative voice. It is a
wonderful mix of the lyrical and poetic which she has gained from her
education and reading with the slightly rough, idiosyncratic dialect
of Tennessee at that time. I found it riveting, both in what she
says and how she says it.
This is definitely
one of my books of the year so far and one of the best things I have
read for some considerable time. Very warmly recommended.
(My thanks to Faber
& Faber for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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