Diane Setterfield is not a prolific writer. Her first novel, the much celebrated The Thirteenth Tale, came out in 2006 and her second, Belman and Black, in 2013. This most recent one appeared in January of this year. I hadn't read the first two but something I read in a review of Once Upon a River made me very curious and as I was looking for a new audiobook to listen to I picked it and started listening. This was weeks and weeks ago but it's taken me till now to get to the end and share my thoughts. I'll tell you right now that I loved it.
Set sometime in the final decades of the 19th century, the novel is set on the banks of the river Thames, not far from Oxford. Much of the action happens in a riverside pub, the Swan at Radcot. This place is famous for its storytelling, and every event that takes place in and around the area is fictionalised and mythologised by one or more of the regulars. On the night on which the story begins, a remarkable thing happens. The door of the pub opens and in staggers as man who is badly wounded in the face and head. In his arms is a bundle which at first is taken for a puppet but quickly turns out to be a small child, a girl, seemingly dead. The local nurse and midwife Rita Sunday is sent for, and she takes the little body into a quiet room, where an amazing thing happens: the child, whose vital signs were completely absent, suddenly revives. A miracle, it seems, which Rita certainly cannot explain.
But who is this child and where did she come from? As soon as the story gets out, three local families claim her as their own. The first to claim her are Anthony and Helena Vaughan, a well to do local couple whose two year old daughter mysteriously disappeared two years earlier. Then there's simple-minded Lily White, the parson's housekeeper, who is convinced the girl is her long-dead sister. Finally, landowner Robert Armstrong and his wife Bess have reason to believe she must be the illegitimate daughter of their ne'er do well son Robin. The child herself, though seemingly content to be loved and looked after, fails to speak and thus cannot shed any light on the mystery.
'The river does not seem particularly intent upon reaching its destination. Instead it winds its way though time-wasting loops and diversions', says the narrator. Obviously this can also be applied to the novel itself. This is a long book, and the action meanders, like the river, between the lives of the various claimants. Far from being time-wasting, though, its impossible not to get completely caught up in the various life stories of the claimants and their families. The Vaughan's world has been completely destroyed by the loss of their little daughter - the best guess is that she was kidnapped by river gypsies - and Helena has succumbed to a deep depression. Poor Lily White, whose wicked step-brother bullies and abuses her on a daily basis, is haunted by the tragedy which took place when she was a child. As for Robert Armstrong, he is the mixed race son of a local earl and his black servant - he has been given a good education and is a fine, good-hearted and much loved pillar of the community. He has done his best for his problematic stepson, but Robin has been nothing but trouble. Standing apart but deeply involved is the nurse Rita, a strong single woman, very adept in all forms of medicine. Another winding thread in the novel is the story of her relationship with the man who brought the little girl in from the river. He is Henry Daunt, a skilled Oxford photographer, and Rita comes to love him as much as he loves her, but her experience of seeing women die in childbirth has made her terrified of ever getting pregnant.
It's worth noting that despite the many vicissitudes everyone undergoes, these are almost all essentially good, well meaning people. I've read that The Thirteenth Tales has elements of gothic horror - there's none of that here, though there is history and mythology. I obviously can't tell you what happens in the end, or how the mystery resolves itself, but overall it is a heart warming story and left me sorry to have finally heard all fourteen plus hours of it. It was beautifully read by Juliet Stephenson and overall a great listen which is highly recommended if you're an Audible fan. If not, just read the book!
