Review: Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A wonderful novel from the author of 'The Thirteenth Tale', set on the upper reaches of the Thames. The year is 1887; the day is 21st December, the Winter Solstice. The regulars at The Swan Inn, Radcot, are settling down for an evening of storytelling, for which the inn is famous. Suddenly the door bursts open and out of the blackness staggers a badly injured man carrying what the observers first think to be a puppet or a doll. He sways and falls, and his burden is caught by the youngest son of the innkeeper – and proves to be the dead body of a little girl. Except that she's not dead – a few hours later, despite having been examined by the nurse and found to have no pulse, dilated pupils and ice-cold skin, she comes back to life.

And so the search for her identity begins, with several claimants coming forward, each having lost a young child, and each convinced that this little girl must be she. But why doesn't she speak? And why does she keep looking up and down the river for something, or someone? And how is it possible for a child to be certified dead, and then come back to life?

A fascinating mystery with more than a hint of the supernatural, as befits a story set on our 'Sacred River' . All of the characters - or 'tributaries', as they're described at one point – have their own back stories, by turns tragic, heroic or questionable; all are vivid, credible and (mostly) loveable in their vulnerability and hopefulness. The narrative takes us through the course of a year, through solstices and equinoxes, harvest and flood, birth and death, round to its conclusion at the next Winter Solstice; and through it all flows the River in all its turbulent moods. A beautiful story, beautifully told.



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