What a haunting little book Thursbitch by Alan Garner is. The narrative is melodic, with a darkness that hangs over you like a heavy blanket. The story alternates between two timelines; Jake Turner's in the 1700s, and a more modern one, both set in Thursbitch, a mysterious English valley. The dialect in the former narrative is a bit hard to understand as it is an old regional English that sounds a bit Irish to me (forgive me for my ignorance), and as the book opens with Turner's story, I was at first wary to embrace the book. But Garner's ability to weave plotlines from past to present had a refreshing outcome that kept the story from becoming too tiresome, and had me more and more engaged as the pages were turned.
A bit of fantasy and plenty of drama, the book is less of a mystery as I first thought it would be, than an updated folktale. The transformation of Turner from a loving husband to a raving madman is emotional and beautiful, and the stillness of the landscape is a powerful contrast to this. Artfully done.
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