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At Hawthorn Time
An exquisite and intimate novel about four people’s lives and our changing relationship with nature—for fans of Jon McGregor and Robert Macfarlane.
Howard and Kitty have been married for thirty years and now sleep in different rooms. It was always Kitty’s dream to move from their corner of north London into the countryside, and when the kids had left home they moved north, to the pretty village of Lodeshill with its one ailing pub and outlying farms. Howard often wonders if anyone who lives in this place really has a reason to be there—more reason than him.
Jack was once a rural rebel, a protestor who only ever wanted to walk the land in which he had been born, free and subject to nobody. After yet another stint in prison for trespass, he sets off once more to walk north up the country’s spine with his battered old backpack and notebooks full of scribbled poetry, looking for work in the fields and sleeping under the stars.
Jamie is a nineteen-year-old Lodeshill boy who works in a distribution center and has a Saturday job at a bakery. He spent his childhood exploring the woods and fields with his grandfather, and playing with his friend Alex, who lived in the farmhouse next door. Now, though, all he dreams of is cars—and escape.
As the lives of these four people overlap, we realize that mysterious layers of history are not only buried within them, but also locked into the landscape. A captivating novel, At Hawthorn Time is about what it means to belong—to family, to community, and to place—and about what it is to take our own, long road into the unknown.
Howard and Kitty have been married for thirty years and now sleep in different rooms. It was always Kitty’s dream to move from their corner of north London into the countryside, and when the kids had left home they moved north, to the pretty village of Lodeshill with its one ailing pub and outlying farms. Howard often wonders if anyone who lives in this place really has a reason to be there—more reason than him.
Jack was once a rural rebel, a protestor who only ever wanted to walk the land in which he had been born, free and subject to nobody. After yet another stint in prison for trespass, he sets off once more to walk north up the country’s spine with his battered old backpack and notebooks full of scribbled poetry, looking for work in the fields and sleeping under the stars.
Jamie is a nineteen-year-old Lodeshill boy who works in a distribution center and has a Saturday job at a bakery. He spent his childhood exploring the woods and fields with his grandfather, and playing with his friend Alex, who lived in the farmhouse next door. Now, though, all he dreams of is cars—and escape.
As the lives of these four people overlap, we realize that mysterious layers of history are not only buried within them, but also locked into the landscape. A captivating novel, At Hawthorn Time is about what it means to belong—to family, to community, and to place—and about what it is to take our own, long road into the unknown.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published April 23, 2015
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1841 people want to read
About the author
Melissa Harrison
14 books242 followersMelissa Harrison is the author of the novels Clay and At Hawthorn Time, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize, and one work of non-fiction, Rain, which was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. She is a nature writer, critic and columnist for The Times, the Financial Times and the Guardian, among others. Her new novel All Among the Barley is due for publication in August, 2018..
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 155 reviews
April 1, 2016
I'm not good at reviewing novels. I read such a small amount of fiction (trying to remedy that this year). I want to avoid retelling the story, and I obviously don't want to give away any of the story line.
However, this book was so good and I feel I have to say something about it!
,
I admit I was prepared to be critical. Comparisons with Robert Macfarlane (surely our greatest 'landscape' writer) didn't sit easy with me.
Plus, I live deep in the countryside and am very aware of nature's ways - the seasons passing and the old tracks and green lanes surrounding my home. What on earth would a young chit of a thing like Melissa Harrison who (horrors) lives in London know about such things?
Turns out I was wrong in my assumptions. The nature writing, often so forced by other writers, was superb. Tracks, lanes, roads, pathways - all feature throughout the book and symbolise much more than getting from A to B.
Harrison is able to write about a variety of characters from young to old and all are utterly believable.
The slowly disintegrating marriage of Howard and Kitty is beautifully done - maybe hints of green shoots or maybe a separation and divorce - we are left wondering.
The whole book is shot through with a sense of sadness at the passing of time and the changes being made to the countryside. There's a fear that old traditions are lost - and yet the young voice of Jamie can sometimes voice hope for the future.
However, this book was so good and I feel I have to say something about it!
,
I admit I was prepared to be critical. Comparisons with Robert Macfarlane (surely our greatest 'landscape' writer) didn't sit easy with me.
Plus, I live deep in the countryside and am very aware of nature's ways - the seasons passing and the old tracks and green lanes surrounding my home. What on earth would a young chit of a thing like Melissa Harrison who (horrors) lives in London know about such things?
Turns out I was wrong in my assumptions. The nature writing, often so forced by other writers, was superb. Tracks, lanes, roads, pathways - all feature throughout the book and symbolise much more than getting from A to B.
Harrison is able to write about a variety of characters from young to old and all are utterly believable.
The slowly disintegrating marriage of Howard and Kitty is beautifully done - maybe hints of green shoots or maybe a separation and divorce - we are left wondering.
The whole book is shot through with a sense of sadness at the passing of time and the changes being made to the countryside. There's a fear that old traditions are lost - and yet the young voice of Jamie can sometimes voice hope for the future.
April 4, 2017
I especially liked the nature writing in At Hawthorn Time, and gradually came to care about the characters, and worried for what was going to happen at the end. But I'm also not sure it needed its beginning (a car crash) and its ending (who is in the car crash). It's a quiet book, and perhaps it would have worked better for me if it had stayed that way.
I also wasn't sure about some of the internal voices of the characters (lots of cliches), which sometimes were hard to distinguish from each other.
But a solid, nice read.
I also wasn't sure about some of the internal voices of the characters (lots of cliches), which sometimes were hard to distinguish from each other.
But a solid, nice read.
May 27, 2020
Another beautifully poised novel from Melissa Harrison. I have now read all three of her novels (the others being Clay and All Among The Barley) and greatly enjoyed all of them - they all combine an acute awareness of nature with social history and moving personal stories.
This one is set in modern times in a small village in central England, but is largely about the loss of older rural traditions. Its perspective shifts between several characters, the most memorable being Jack, an itinerant casual farm labourer who is increasingly frozen out of the society he has spent all of his life in. Other characters include a middle aged couple feeling increasingly distanced from one another, a young warehouse worker who feels he has no prospects and his grandfather, who is suffering from dementia and is also nostalgic for a lost past.
This one is set in modern times in a small village in central England, but is largely about the loss of older rural traditions. Its perspective shifts between several characters, the most memorable being Jack, an itinerant casual farm labourer who is increasingly frozen out of the society he has spent all of his life in. Other characters include a middle aged couple feeling increasingly distanced from one another, a young warehouse worker who feels he has no prospects and his grandfather, who is suffering from dementia and is also nostalgic for a lost past.
December 2, 2015
It starts with a bang. In a lane outside the village of Lodeshill there has been a car crash. As the violence of this act is fading, and the wheels are still spinning, the debris from a glove-box is scattered on the tarmac and there is the faint sound of sirens in the distance.
Lodeshill is a busy rural village populated by those still working on the land, and those who have sought out its peace. There is Jamie, a teenager whose future is in a dead end job in a huge distribution centre, Howard and Kitty, who have left the bright lights of London for tranquillity. Jack is also recently from London, wandering the lanes picking up casual work on farms, as and when he can.
These characters are seeking different things. As well as work, Jack is looking for shelter, the fields and copses are his bed for the night. He treads lightly on the countryside, as this is his home. Howard and Kitty are still married, just, and are now sleeping in separate bedrooms. They have secrets kept long from each other, Howard has returned to a drinking habit and Kitty has a diagnosis that only her fellow artist knows about. Jamie loves where he lives, but he cannot see much beyond his job, so he busies himself customising his car. These four people who are all living very different lives, slowly start to overlap as the story builds to the tragic accident.
This is a hauntingly and beautifully written book. It is rooted deep in the natural world and the slow movement of the seasons. The detail is magnificent too; you sense the breaking of the buds, the heady aroma of the mayflowers on the verges, the aeronautics of bats at dusk and wheeling of birds seeking sustenance. The way that Harrison has intermingled these four lives as they orbit the village is quite something. But it is infused with a melancholy too, a farm is sold after a tragedy , an old man goes missing, but all these events are the precursor to the accident that happens in the prologue. There is rarely a word out of place here as well, making it effortless to read. I liked too the detail of natural events happening at that moment at the beginning of each chapter, it adds a nice sense of time to the story, and that whatever happens in her characters lives, there is that constant metronome of nature ticking away...
Lodeshill is a busy rural village populated by those still working on the land, and those who have sought out its peace. There is Jamie, a teenager whose future is in a dead end job in a huge distribution centre, Howard and Kitty, who have left the bright lights of London for tranquillity. Jack is also recently from London, wandering the lanes picking up casual work on farms, as and when he can.
These characters are seeking different things. As well as work, Jack is looking for shelter, the fields and copses are his bed for the night. He treads lightly on the countryside, as this is his home. Howard and Kitty are still married, just, and are now sleeping in separate bedrooms. They have secrets kept long from each other, Howard has returned to a drinking habit and Kitty has a diagnosis that only her fellow artist knows about. Jamie loves where he lives, but he cannot see much beyond his job, so he busies himself customising his car. These four people who are all living very different lives, slowly start to overlap as the story builds to the tragic accident.
This is a hauntingly and beautifully written book. It is rooted deep in the natural world and the slow movement of the seasons. The detail is magnificent too; you sense the breaking of the buds, the heady aroma of the mayflowers on the verges, the aeronautics of bats at dusk and wheeling of birds seeking sustenance. The way that Harrison has intermingled these four lives as they orbit the village is quite something. But it is infused with a melancholy too, a farm is sold after a tragedy , an old man goes missing, but all these events are the precursor to the accident that happens in the prologue. There is rarely a word out of place here as well, making it effortless to read. I liked too the detail of natural events happening at that moment at the beginning of each chapter, it adds a nice sense of time to the story, and that whatever happens in her characters lives, there is that constant metronome of nature ticking away...
October 8, 2022
3,5 ⭐️ Sehr zu empfehlen für alle, die Naturbeschreibungen lieben. Die Geschichte hat mich ansonsten leicht auch an den Roman von Kristine Bilkau „Nebenan“ erinnert: das Leben auf dem Dorf, Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, was weiß man über seine Nachbarn wirklich.
April 24, 2015
At Hawthorn Time is a story of people trying to find themselves - not in any New Age vaguely spiritual sense, but in an everyday 'how and where do I fit in' way. We all have an idea, or ideal, of how the English countryside should be - sleepy villages where nothing has changed in hundreds of years, meadows with placidly grazing cows, ancient woodlands, life centred on the turning of the seasons. The reality of heavy farm machinery, migrant workers, the whole modern agricultural business or even cow-pat strewn roads doesn't quite fit that image we have. Into this gap between expectations and reality falls this story. Lodeshill is a place that's seen so much change in the last hundred years - machinery has taken over jobs once done by farm labourers, leaving villagers now seeking employment in the anonymous industrial units of the nearby town; farms are being sold off and housing built there; newcomers like Howard and Kitty have moved from the city in search of a rural idyll.
It's a lovely, compelling read. While it doesn't share the brutality of Cynan Jones' The Dig, it has the same quality of depicting rural life intimately and seeing it clearly, without blinkers; of showing that it's not glossy and chocolate box pretty but a place of dirt, and that without it being a place of work it will become empty and sterile.
There's also a little touch of the thriller about it. As the story brings us closer to discovering who was involved in the accident and why, it will have you turning the pages faster or wanting to sneakily check the ending - I'm not sure I'd advise it as, like the motorist whizzing along a country lane, you'll miss so much in the details.
More to this review on my blog..
It's a lovely, compelling read. While it doesn't share the brutality of Cynan Jones' The Dig, it has the same quality of depicting rural life intimately and seeing it clearly, without blinkers; of showing that it's not glossy and chocolate box pretty but a place of dirt, and that without it being a place of work it will become empty and sterile.
There's also a little touch of the thriller about it. As the story brings us closer to discovering who was involved in the accident and why, it will have you turning the pages faster or wanting to sneakily check the ending - I'm not sure I'd advise it as, like the motorist whizzing along a country lane, you'll miss so much in the details.
More to this review on my blog..
August 16, 2018
Written in a quasi-mystical pastoral style, the story is told from four viewpoints, as the characters’ relationships and their personal histories are revealed via their internal monologues. However, the real spirit of the novel is the rural landscape and the disconnection of modern man with nature, folklore and the old country ways - a moving elegy to a fast disappearing way of life.
'It must have been amazing growing up in those times: there'd be a story attached to every cave, every rock, every tree. It wouldn't be, you know, there are some trees -' Chris waved an arm at the general view - 'and we know everything there is to know about them, though hardly anyone actually bothers to learn their names. It would be a case of, this tree, this oak tree, has a wicked witch in it, this willow tree is magic -'
'Rowan', said Kitty, taking her son's arm. Rowan trees are magic. You wouldn't dare to cut one down. Elder trees sometimes had witches in them. And hollies were planted in the hedges to show you where to turn the plough. it wasn't all magic, you see, but everything meant something. It still does, we just don't know how to see it any more. I think it's a shame.'
Reviewed for Whichbook.net
'It must have been amazing growing up in those times: there'd be a story attached to every cave, every rock, every tree. It wouldn't be, you know, there are some trees -' Chris waved an arm at the general view - 'and we know everything there is to know about them, though hardly anyone actually bothers to learn their names. It would be a case of, this tree, this oak tree, has a wicked witch in it, this willow tree is magic -'
'Rowan', said Kitty, taking her son's arm. Rowan trees are magic. You wouldn't dare to cut one down. Elder trees sometimes had witches in them. And hollies were planted in the hedges to show you where to turn the plough. it wasn't all magic, you see, but everything meant something. It still does, we just don't know how to see it any more. I think it's a shame.'
Reviewed for Whichbook.net
July 31, 2015
I am mixed about this book. I liked some of the writing and the descriptions of the English countryside, but I found the characters lacking in both appeal and interest to the reader. I also felt the constant descriptions of what the characters to be thinking and feeling detracted from the story. There is little dialogue in this book because the author spends so much time telling us things like what the characters think about their marriage, kids, house, etc instead of writing an actual story. I prefer more show less tell.
The author also used the annoying technique of changing the character we are reading about at each chapter. Many of these character don't know each other so she uses yet another character to tie the story together.
The author also used the annoying technique of changing the character we are reading about at each chapter. Many of these character don't know each other so she uses yet another character to tie the story together.
May 7, 2016
There's much to enjoy about this book. I relished the descriptions of countryside: whether the litter-strewn countryside of the demi-countryside at the edges of towns and motorways, or the fully rural landscape. Melissa Harrison's observations of plant and bird life - minutely different with each passing day - are satisfying. Village life, for good and not-so-good, is described with clear-eyed realism.
Characters too ring true. The vagrant Jack is decribed with sympathy and warmth, and while other characters may be less sympathetic - Howard for instance - all are described with compassion and are believable.
Each vignette in the book feels real. I believed in Kitty and her attempts to embrace a life in which she is to some extent still a tourist. I warmed to young Jamie as he tries to make sense of a less than satisfactory personal and working life. Even Howard's prevarications over the new life he struggles to feel at one with interested and involved me.
Only the plot as a whole failed to convince me. It takes until the very last chapter for the main characters to come together, in a totally unexpected way. The book - intentionally -doesn't answer several of the questions it poses. But I was left with the impression of a plot that was as unsatisfactory and unresolved as life itself. And perhaps this was the point. I'll read other books by Melissa Harrison that come my way. But it's her talent as a nature writer, and as a describer of character that interests me, rather then her skills as a story teller.
Written a month later, as an addendum to my original review. I've changed my mind about the unsatisfying nature of the plot. It's a 'slice of life', and as such has stayed with me, and had me wondering about the characters in the weeks since I originally read the book.
Characters too ring true. The vagrant Jack is decribed with sympathy and warmth, and while other characters may be less sympathetic - Howard for instance - all are described with compassion and are believable.
Each vignette in the book feels real. I believed in Kitty and her attempts to embrace a life in which she is to some extent still a tourist. I warmed to young Jamie as he tries to make sense of a less than satisfactory personal and working life. Even Howard's prevarications over the new life he struggles to feel at one with interested and involved me.
Only the plot as a whole failed to convince me. It takes until the very last chapter for the main characters to come together, in a totally unexpected way. The book - intentionally -doesn't answer several of the questions it poses. But I was left with the impression of a plot that was as unsatisfactory and unresolved as life itself. And perhaps this was the point. I'll read other books by Melissa Harrison that come my way. But it's her talent as a nature writer, and as a describer of character that interests me, rather then her skills as a story teller.
Written a month later, as an addendum to my original review. I've changed my mind about the unsatisfying nature of the plot. It's a 'slice of life', and as such has stayed with me, and had me wondering about the characters in the weeks since I originally read the book.
May 30, 2019
Lyrical account of the last vestiges of farm life rapidly vanishing from a tiny English village.
Just checking in.
Multiple first-person narrators, mostly villagers, trace those changes, recounting events from the day's weather to the local laird's recent death. An itinerant farmhand arrives to find only three working farms left in the community. A young man fondly remembers his many days at the river with his grandfather, even while that grandfather silently muses that the young man must have forgotten them all by now.
The novel is full of such reassuring ironies, usually revealed in graceful details. After a violent traffic accident on an isolated, ancient road, police have left the few coins where they lay scattered from one of the cars because "for someone to have collected them all up, one by one, had probably felt wrong."
The author, normally a nature writer, lets us gradually piece events together to understand how much still remains for these characters who quietly care for one another.
Incidentally, that traffic accident acts as a framing device for the novel. In the style of If I Stay, one of the narrators is dead. But we can't tell which one, and that mystery is (what else?) the plot's driving force. Not everyone will like the ending. I'm still mulling it over myself.
Nifty house sparrow gif by Head Like an Orange.
Just checking in.
Multiple first-person narrators, mostly villagers, trace those changes, recounting events from the day's weather to the local laird's recent death. An itinerant farmhand arrives to find only three working farms left in the community. A young man fondly remembers his many days at the river with his grandfather, even while that grandfather silently muses that the young man must have forgotten them all by now.
The novel is full of such reassuring ironies, usually revealed in graceful details. After a violent traffic accident on an isolated, ancient road, police have left the few coins where they lay scattered from one of the cars because "for someone to have collected them all up, one by one, had probably felt wrong."
The author, normally a nature writer, lets us gradually piece events together to understand how much still remains for these characters who quietly care for one another.
Incidentally, that traffic accident acts as a framing device for the novel. In the style of If I Stay, one of the narrators is dead. But we can't tell which one, and that mystery is (what else?) the plot's driving force. Not everyone will like the ending. I'm still mulling it over myself.
Nifty house sparrow gif by Head Like an Orange.
December 4, 2022
„Weißdornzeit“ ist für mich nach „vom Ende eines Sommers“ das zweite Buch der Autorin Melissa Harrison. Das Original erschien bereits im Jahr 2015.
Der Prolog schildert ein Ereignis, welches im Laufe der Geschichte bzw. Zum Ende hin in den Kapiteln geschieht. Als Lesende:r erfährt man viel über die unterschiedlichen Protagonisten. Die Natur wird unglaublich schön beschrieben.
Harrisons Schreibstil ist ruhig, poetisch. Und trotz der Tatsache, dass gar nicht so viel passiert, lässt dieses Buch eine:n nicht mehr los.
Die Kapitelüberschriften bestehen aus unterschiedlichen Pflanzen oder Tieren. Welche teilweise in dem jeweiligen Kapitel erneut aufgegriffen werden.
Mich konnte diese Geschichte tatsächlich etwas mehr berühren als „Vom Ende eines Sommers“, besonders durch die leisen Töne und den ruhigen Erzählstil. Von mir gibt’s daher eine Leseempfehlung für all diejenigen, die auf schöne Naturbeschreibungen stehen, die bereits den Vorgängerroman gelesen haben und/oder eine ruhige Frühlingsgeschichte lesen möchten.
Buchdetails: erschienen am 22.06.2022 im DuMont-Verlag | gelesen als Hordcover | Seitenanzahl: 304 | 23,00 € | übersetzt von: Werner Löcher-Lawrence
Der Prolog schildert ein Ereignis, welches im Laufe der Geschichte bzw. Zum Ende hin in den Kapiteln geschieht. Als Lesende:r erfährt man viel über die unterschiedlichen Protagonisten. Die Natur wird unglaublich schön beschrieben.
Harrisons Schreibstil ist ruhig, poetisch. Und trotz der Tatsache, dass gar nicht so viel passiert, lässt dieses Buch eine:n nicht mehr los.
Die Kapitelüberschriften bestehen aus unterschiedlichen Pflanzen oder Tieren. Welche teilweise in dem jeweiligen Kapitel erneut aufgegriffen werden.
Mich konnte diese Geschichte tatsächlich etwas mehr berühren als „Vom Ende eines Sommers“, besonders durch die leisen Töne und den ruhigen Erzählstil. Von mir gibt’s daher eine Leseempfehlung für all diejenigen, die auf schöne Naturbeschreibungen stehen, die bereits den Vorgängerroman gelesen haben und/oder eine ruhige Frühlingsgeschichte lesen möchten.
Buchdetails: erschienen am 22.06.2022 im DuMont-Verlag | gelesen als Hordcover | Seitenanzahl: 304 | 23,00 € | übersetzt von: Werner Löcher-Lawrence
September 13, 2019
A beautifully realized story of humans and their relationship with nature. A man wanders. He is unused to conversation and the hidden rules and subtleties of conversation. He is Jack. He walks in nature. He, for me, was the hero. Lost in a time and place that fears and has little use for his kind. Painful and acute. A tawny owl asks a question of the night. “He would sleep in the wood for one more night and at dawn he would be gone: a shadow moving quietly along a hedgeline like something half remembered and vanishing like a dream.” Brought more than one tear to my eye.
June 22, 2022
Howard und Kitty sind im Alter aus London aufs Land nach Lodeshill gezogen; ihr Geschäft in der Stadt hat Sohn Chris übernommen. Gerade noch rechtzeitig; denn mit online-Handel kann Howard sich nicht anfreunden. Ein Pub, kein Laden mehr, Träume vom romantischen Landleben könnten sich hier schnell zerschlagen. Mit dem Kauf der Lodge auf dem Gelände der aufgegebenen Culverkey-Farm werden beide zu Zaungästen des Niedergangs der englischen Landwirtschaft. Philip Harlands Milchvieh-Hof war bankrott gegangen kurz nachdem seine Frau mit den Kindern ihn verlassen hatte.
Der 19-jährige Jamie blickt aus anderer Perspektive auf die verlassene Culverkey-Farm. Er schlüpfte damals nur durch die Weißdornhecke, um seinen gleichaltrigen Freund Alex zu treffen. Seit Alex nicht mehr da ist, scheint Jamie nichts mehr zu gelingen. Sicher ist das einer der Gründe, warum Jamie endlich seinen Corsa flottmachen und das Dorf verlassen will.
Auf der Landstraße ist an einem Maimorgen Jack unterwegs, der zahlreiche Male zu Haftstrafen verurteilt wurde, weil er in der Natur schläft und auf seinen Wegen private Ländereien durchquert. Jack hat schon oft in Lodeshill gearbeitet, er kennt die Bauern, man kennt ihn. Nur in geschlossenen Räumen hält Jack es nicht aus. Aus bestimmten Gründen wird er Culverkey nie mehr betreten; aber den Gasters ist ein erfahrener Arbeiter zum Spargelstechen höchst willkommen.
Um zwei Menschen muss ich mich als Außenstehende sorgen: Kitty geht es in letzter Zeit gesundheitlich schlechter; den nahenden Arzttermin, der ihr Klarheit bringen soll, hat sie Howard jedoch verschwiegen. Auch Jamies Großvater James Hirons im Nachbarort Ardleton soll einem Arzt vorgestellt werden, da seine geistige Leistungsfähigkeit abnimmt und er Hilfsangebote unleidlich ablehnt. Die Wege von vier Personen werden sich durch einen Unfall kreuzen. Sie alle stehen für Brüche im Privatleben, für die in der Nachkriegszeit beginnende Krise der Landwirtschaft und für einen Lebensstil, in dem Einzelgänger und „einfache Landarbeiter“ wie James senior keinen Platz mehr finden.
Mit der Frage im Hinterkopf, wer warum verunglücken wird, bin ich den Einzelschicksalen gespannt gefolgt und dem besonderen Blick, mit dem Melissa Harrisons Figuren die Landschaft wahrnehmen. Auch eine Pflanze, die unbeachtet am Zaun wächst, wird hier liebevoll beschrieben. Vignetten von Pflanzen am Anfang jedes Kapitels könnten von Jack stammen, wie auch die knappen Stichwörter darunter.
Weißdornzeit ist wie „Vom Ende eines Sommers“ ein Landschaftsroman und zugleich genauestens beobachtetes Porträt einer Epoche. Wer Melissa Harrisons ersten Roman mochte, sollte hier unbedingt zugreifen.
Der 19-jährige Jamie blickt aus anderer Perspektive auf die verlassene Culverkey-Farm. Er schlüpfte damals nur durch die Weißdornhecke, um seinen gleichaltrigen Freund Alex zu treffen. Seit Alex nicht mehr da ist, scheint Jamie nichts mehr zu gelingen. Sicher ist das einer der Gründe, warum Jamie endlich seinen Corsa flottmachen und das Dorf verlassen will.
Auf der Landstraße ist an einem Maimorgen Jack unterwegs, der zahlreiche Male zu Haftstrafen verurteilt wurde, weil er in der Natur schläft und auf seinen Wegen private Ländereien durchquert. Jack hat schon oft in Lodeshill gearbeitet, er kennt die Bauern, man kennt ihn. Nur in geschlossenen Räumen hält Jack es nicht aus. Aus bestimmten Gründen wird er Culverkey nie mehr betreten; aber den Gasters ist ein erfahrener Arbeiter zum Spargelstechen höchst willkommen.
Um zwei Menschen muss ich mich als Außenstehende sorgen: Kitty geht es in letzter Zeit gesundheitlich schlechter; den nahenden Arzttermin, der ihr Klarheit bringen soll, hat sie Howard jedoch verschwiegen. Auch Jamies Großvater James Hirons im Nachbarort Ardleton soll einem Arzt vorgestellt werden, da seine geistige Leistungsfähigkeit abnimmt und er Hilfsangebote unleidlich ablehnt. Die Wege von vier Personen werden sich durch einen Unfall kreuzen. Sie alle stehen für Brüche im Privatleben, für die in der Nachkriegszeit beginnende Krise der Landwirtschaft und für einen Lebensstil, in dem Einzelgänger und „einfache Landarbeiter“ wie James senior keinen Platz mehr finden.
Mit der Frage im Hinterkopf, wer warum verunglücken wird, bin ich den Einzelschicksalen gespannt gefolgt und dem besonderen Blick, mit dem Melissa Harrisons Figuren die Landschaft wahrnehmen. Auch eine Pflanze, die unbeachtet am Zaun wächst, wird hier liebevoll beschrieben. Vignetten von Pflanzen am Anfang jedes Kapitels könnten von Jack stammen, wie auch die knappen Stichwörter darunter.
Weißdornzeit ist wie „Vom Ende eines Sommers“ ein Landschaftsroman und zugleich genauestens beobachtetes Porträt einer Epoche. Wer Melissa Harrisons ersten Roman mochte, sollte hier unbedingt zugreifen.
May 10, 2020
(1.5) Everyone dies, but gosh, what a lovely spring! The car accident, impassively recounted as a prologue, is the event the whole book is moving towards, but it is meaningless, just a way of stopping suddenly. None of the characters, bar Kitty, elicits any interest or sympathy, though, so perhaps it makes no matter that they die. They’re a mixture of salt-of-the-earth countryside folk like Jack the vagrant and city-fleeing outsiders like Howard, whose marriage is slowly crumbling. Each is given a random career, hobby and vice, all as if assigned by a random number generator. For example, addiction + music industry past + fixing up amateur radios = ready-made character! (Howard). The writing is just about capable, though it’s clear Harrison is most interested in writing descriptions of nature, so she might as well stick with where her talent lies.
A line I liked: “perhaps belonging was as simple as deciding to”
A line I liked: “perhaps belonging was as simple as deciding to”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 18, 2015
Beautifully written by someone who obviously loves the countryside and rural life.
This book tells the story of a small group of characters in a rural English village over the course of one month. The cast of characters is diverse, there is Jamie the young car enthusiast who loves is Grandfather. Howard and Kitty the new arrivals whose marriage is in trouble and a wandering vagrant named Jack who simply longs to be close to the land away from people and city life.
Over the course of the book ,their paths intersect , often in very minor ways , bringing them ever closer to the climactic event that bookends the story.
The writing while descriptive , is never overly so and the characters are very true to life, which of course makes the reader care for them . The storyline while quite simple is still very compelling and I read the book in one sitting.
This book tells the story of a small group of characters in a rural English village over the course of one month. The cast of characters is diverse, there is Jamie the young car enthusiast who loves is Grandfather. Howard and Kitty the new arrivals whose marriage is in trouble and a wandering vagrant named Jack who simply longs to be close to the land away from people and city life.
Over the course of the book ,their paths intersect , often in very minor ways , bringing them ever closer to the climactic event that bookends the story.
The writing while descriptive , is never overly so and the characters are very true to life, which of course makes the reader care for them . The storyline while quite simple is still very compelling and I read the book in one sitting.
December 14, 2020
Melissa Harrison's book "All Among the Barley" is one of my favourite books of all time, so I was a trifle wary when I started this one. How can an author write two amazing stories that I will adore? An doubts I had were unfounded. She's an amazing writer, and her descriptions of the countryside as well as the relationships between ordinary people in Rural Britain are breath-taking. "At Hawthorn Time" incorporates 4 main characters living in Lodeshill, all with their own private demons, trapped in their own mental prisons. Howard and Kitty, who moved to the country to start a new life away from London. However, even a new life cannot repair their fractured marriage which is about to fall apart. Jack, who arrives in the country one morning, fresh out of prison and looking for work. He's a vagrant with no fixed abode, but can't help feeling like time has moved on without him. And lastly Jamie, who has lived all his 19 years in the village and would give anything to escape far, far away, if it wasn't for the constant pull of the village keeping him tethered.
The tragic last few pages leave the reader wondering exactly who of these 4 characters will leave, unscathed, and who will not.
The tragic last few pages leave the reader wondering exactly who of these 4 characters will leave, unscathed, and who will not.
Read
February 27, 2023ehrlich gesagt hab ich das buch unter anderem vor allem wegen des schönen covers gerne lesen wollen, obwohl auch der klappentext vielversprechend klang.
war ein gutes buch für zwischendurch, aber auch nicht mehr.
die charakter waren mir zu schwach gezeichnet & die handlung etwas zu langsam erzählt
spannend und wirklich stark erzählt fand ich sowohl prolog als auch epilog, das hat bisschen spannung mit rein gebracht.
war ein gutes buch für zwischendurch, aber auch nicht mehr.
die charakter waren mir zu schwach gezeichnet & die handlung etwas zu langsam erzählt
spannend und wirklich stark erzählt fand ich sowohl prolog als auch epilog, das hat bisschen spannung mit rein gebracht.
September 29, 2018
I didn’t hate this, but it failed entirely to capture my attention. The nature writing - what little of it there is - does not sing, and Harrison’s prose here is not comprised of much beauty. I far prefer her nature writing, and will stick to this, rather than her fiction, in future.
June 21, 2021
This was a pleasant surprise from someone whose nature journal I have just finished. Melissa Harrison certainly knows how to do fiction!
The story here is undulating and builds in layers, cleverly tweaking the tension between characters. Harrison's writing is reminiscent of the style of Elizabeth Strout in that the focus is on the regular mundanity and minutiae of relationships and everyday life, but to the person living that life, their day or moment is monumentally significant to them.
I like how Harrison's penchant for nature comes through in the storytelling, particularly through Jack, the wandering itinerant worker, and Kitty, the frustrated wife. Descriptive elements of the surrounding countryside, farming practices and wildlife recognition are key to the narrative.
There is a melancholic undertone to the entire story, a sense of something slowly sliding out of balance, the loss of tradition and connection to the landscape.
The most telling line of the book is from Jack (the wandering nomad type character). "You're not lost. You're just not looking properly."
This seems to encapsulate the experience of many of us in the modern world. People have forgotten how to engage with nature, with wildlife and with each other.
A brilliant book with a suitably ambiguous ending than can be interpreted differing ways depending on your viewpoint.
The story here is undulating and builds in layers, cleverly tweaking the tension between characters. Harrison's writing is reminiscent of the style of Elizabeth Strout in that the focus is on the regular mundanity and minutiae of relationships and everyday life, but to the person living that life, their day or moment is monumentally significant to them.
I like how Harrison's penchant for nature comes through in the storytelling, particularly through Jack, the wandering itinerant worker, and Kitty, the frustrated wife. Descriptive elements of the surrounding countryside, farming practices and wildlife recognition are key to the narrative.
There is a melancholic undertone to the entire story, a sense of something slowly sliding out of balance, the loss of tradition and connection to the landscape.
The most telling line of the book is from Jack (the wandering nomad type character). "You're not lost. You're just not looking properly."
This seems to encapsulate the experience of many of us in the modern world. People have forgotten how to engage with nature, with wildlife and with each other.
A brilliant book with a suitably ambiguous ending than can be interpreted differing ways depending on your viewpoint.
August 30, 2022
Невероятно грустная, но хорошая книга. Начинается со сцены автокатастрофы (примерно как фильм Вайды "Канал" начинается с сообщения, что никто из тех, кого мы видим на экране, не выживет или "Мост короля Людовика Святого" Уайлдера с момента обрушения моста) и дальше действие отматывается назад. Харрисон рассказывает о людях, но похоже главный герой здесь - конкретный английский пейзаж. Очень много про жизнь и память земли, про то, что мы видим и чего не видим, что исчезает, а что остается.
January 23, 2025
A somewhat slow meandering book focused on several people in a small village in Great Britain. The book starts with something yet to come, a bad car accident.
We follow several people for a main point of view, starting with a homeless man who is walking the old roads. He’s very connected to nature and disconnecting to people. He shouldn’t leave London after being released from jail, but he can’t be in a big city and the jail nearly broke him entirely. Now, he is heading to the farming village of Lodeshill to help with the harvest cutting asparagus.
Next is Kitty and Howard. They moved about a year ago to Lodeshill and living in the country was Kitty’s dream, not Howard’s who would rather have stayed in London. The kids are out on their own now and it’s just the two of them and their marriage is in a bit of a shamble.
Then there’s Jamie. He’s a young man working two jobs now and is working on his car dreaming of how that will be when it’s done and he can show it off. Jamie is an interesting character, often thinking about his past with his next door neighbor friend he no longer knows since the suddenly left some years ago.
Nature and the outdoors are prominent, as is how things are changing, nothing is the same. It is village life here with these people and a few others. It all comes to culmination to what came at the start of the book. It was an okay book. I liked the writing style.
Book rating: 3.25 stars
We follow several people for a main point of view, starting with a homeless man who is walking the old roads. He’s very connected to nature and disconnecting to people. He shouldn’t leave London after being released from jail, but he can’t be in a big city and the jail nearly broke him entirely. Now, he is heading to the farming village of Lodeshill to help with the harvest cutting asparagus.
Next is Kitty and Howard. They moved about a year ago to Lodeshill and living in the country was Kitty’s dream, not Howard’s who would rather have stayed in London. The kids are out on their own now and it’s just the two of them and their marriage is in a bit of a shamble.
Then there’s Jamie. He’s a young man working two jobs now and is working on his car dreaming of how that will be when it’s done and he can show it off. Jamie is an interesting character, often thinking about his past with his next door neighbor friend he no longer knows since the suddenly left some years ago.
Nature and the outdoors are prominent, as is how things are changing, nothing is the same. It is village life here with these people and a few others. It all comes to culmination to what came at the start of the book. It was an okay book. I liked the writing style.
Book rating: 3.25 stars
March 12, 2017
Beautiful. Poignant. Stunning writing. Loved it so much.
October 22, 2017
I firmly believe that we are currently living in a real boom for nature writing. At work I’ve made displays specifically to show off the plethora of recently published hardbacks celebrating nature, specifically that of Britain. For a small island, we have a lot to talk about, whether it be in form of memoir or purely historical count of the land.
I’ve known of Melissa Harrison through her nature writing, and from repeatedly being at the same talks as each other on the topic – and also from that time myself and a few friends gegged along on her evening chatting with Helen McDonald in a bar under a theatre in Soho (sorry about that Melissa!).
Because of this, I really didn’t know what to expect, having not read her previous offering Clay, but the first thing that became clear to me is how much the genes of nature writing are expressed in her fiction. The prose is suffused with rich descriptions of the countryside around Lodeshill, regularly to a level of detail you don’t usually see in other fiction writers. This isn’t a criticism however, this attention to detail serves to build up a rich real landscape, and a realisation that the setting of the novel is living as much as the characters who reside in it.
At Hawthorn Time is a quietly paced novel that begins with a (future) bang, and builds up to this throughout the month long story. It predominantly follows four characters – married ex-Londoners Harold and Kitty, both finding themselves stuck and unable to move forward; young Jamie, desperate to finish his beloved Corsa and escape the village; vagrant farmhand Jack, whose jottings on the wildlife act as a header for every chapter.
The gentle melancholy of the characters and the book itself reminds me so much of Stoner by John Williams or even A Whole Life, a recently translated German novel by Robert Seethaler.
Jamie reminds me of many of the people I went to school with and a desire to escape the country I saw in myself – the irony being that now I’d love to live back in the countryside, feeling stifled by hot polluted bustle of the city-lifestyle I’d always coveted. Maybe I’ve become Kitty?
I genuinely enjoyed At Hawthorn Time and it thoroughly deserves its place on the longlist.
Why should it win?
At Hawthorn Time a humble, melancholy novel with a living landscape, populated by complex characters whose stories gripped me. Harrison deftly combines and contrasts a narrative of paused lives with the never-stopping persistence of nature.
What to read next:
Tin Man by Sarah Winman
A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler
Stoner by John Williams
Thank you to Hannah from Bloomsbury Books for sending me over a copy to read.
I’ve known of Melissa Harrison through her nature writing, and from repeatedly being at the same talks as each other on the topic – and also from that time myself and a few friends gegged along on her evening chatting with Helen McDonald in a bar under a theatre in Soho (sorry about that Melissa!).
Because of this, I really didn’t know what to expect, having not read her previous offering Clay, but the first thing that became clear to me is how much the genes of nature writing are expressed in her fiction. The prose is suffused with rich descriptions of the countryside around Lodeshill, regularly to a level of detail you don’t usually see in other fiction writers. This isn’t a criticism however, this attention to detail serves to build up a rich real landscape, and a realisation that the setting of the novel is living as much as the characters who reside in it.
At Hawthorn Time is a quietly paced novel that begins with a (future) bang, and builds up to this throughout the month long story. It predominantly follows four characters – married ex-Londoners Harold and Kitty, both finding themselves stuck and unable to move forward; young Jamie, desperate to finish his beloved Corsa and escape the village; vagrant farmhand Jack, whose jottings on the wildlife act as a header for every chapter.
The gentle melancholy of the characters and the book itself reminds me so much of Stoner by John Williams or even A Whole Life, a recently translated German novel by Robert Seethaler.
Jamie reminds me of many of the people I went to school with and a desire to escape the country I saw in myself – the irony being that now I’d love to live back in the countryside, feeling stifled by hot polluted bustle of the city-lifestyle I’d always coveted. Maybe I’ve become Kitty?
I genuinely enjoyed At Hawthorn Time and it thoroughly deserves its place on the longlist.
Why should it win?
At Hawthorn Time a humble, melancholy novel with a living landscape, populated by complex characters whose stories gripped me. Harrison deftly combines and contrasts a narrative of paused lives with the never-stopping persistence of nature.
What to read next:
Tin Man by Sarah Winman
A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler
Stoner by John Williams
Thank you to Hannah from Bloomsbury Books for sending me over a copy to read.
January 7, 2016
This is a beautifully written, slow paced book about a small village in rural England. There are four main characters. Howard and Kitty moved to the countryside a year ago after their children left home. Their marriage had been strained for years and the challenges of adapting to a new place have further divided them. Jamie is only 19 and grew up in the area but he is also struggling to find his feet and thinks often about a childhood friend who moved away. Finally there is Jack, a drifter, who comes to the area in search of seasonal farming work.
Not a lot happens in this book. It opens and ends with a car accident in which a character will die, but this is easily the most dramatic event. There is a lot of descriptive writing about the countryside. It feels like a very carefully written book. There are sentences that you want to savour and there are a couple of descriptions of Howard and Kitty's marriage towards the end that rang achingly, beautifully true. And yet it is also frustratingly slow. Things happen, you think "hooray, there's going to be a plot after all", but then they fizzle out again. Even the ending is frustratingly ambiguous. I admired this book, I found the characters interesting, it got under my skin - but it also irritated me.
Not a lot happens in this book. It opens and ends with a car accident in which a character will die, but this is easily the most dramatic event. There is a lot of descriptive writing about the countryside. It feels like a very carefully written book. There are sentences that you want to savour and there are a couple of descriptions of Howard and Kitty's marriage towards the end that rang achingly, beautifully true. And yet it is also frustratingly slow. Things happen, you think "hooray, there's going to be a plot after all", but then they fizzle out again. Even the ending is frustratingly ambiguous. I admired this book, I found the characters interesting, it got under my skin - but it also irritated me.
February 24, 2022
Really enjoyed this book and felt it had components of things I love. Great writing, fabulous absorbing snatches of countryside and what it means to different people, good character building, not plot driven. I loved the understanding gleaned about modern rural living and the pace of change and yet...there was something missing that made me not care beyond the final page. That said..it is still humming at the back of my brain!
Re-read 6 years later - upgraded review from 3 to 4 star
On this reading I was more taken by the way the book starts and ends. Not exactly because the situation remains unclear/unexplained but because it cleverly rounds off the narrative without attempting to tie up loose ends.
Four main storylines (of three contrasting men) and the natural world which cross weave with female perspectives but ostensibly a striving for a lost past, uncertain future and escape.
The vignettes from local legend speckle the prose. I loved the idea that there was an avenue of oaks to be found, created from a woman suffering many stillbirths - each baby buried with an acorn in each hand.
So rich in examining the human condition.
Re-read 6 years later - upgraded review from 3 to 4 star
On this reading I was more taken by the way the book starts and ends. Not exactly because the situation remains unclear/unexplained but because it cleverly rounds off the narrative without attempting to tie up loose ends.
Four main storylines (of three contrasting men) and the natural world which cross weave with female perspectives but ostensibly a striving for a lost past, uncertain future and escape.
The vignettes from local legend speckle the prose. I loved the idea that there was an avenue of oaks to be found, created from a woman suffering many stillbirths - each baby buried with an acorn in each hand.
So rich in examining the human condition.
June 2, 2017
The novel opens with an apparently fatal car crash and then goes back in time to introduce us to the main characters, some of whom are presumably involved in the accident. All four of the main protagonists are linked in some way and all connected to a small English village. Each of them is invested in their rural environment, as is the author herself as increasingly becomes obvious as the book progresses. Her nature descriptions are beautifully written and show an expert eye. It’s a quiet and slow novel with some fine writing but I found it ponderous and although the setting is vividly evoked I found the characterisation lacking in depth, especially with the minor characters. I didn’t relate to any of them and thus wasn’t invested in finding out who had died in the car crash – which remains to a certain extent enigmatic anyway. Just not one for me, I’m afraid.
April 16, 2016
This was just glorious. So precise with regards the natural world, so expansive with its characters, so right about the paradox of rural community, which is both generous and insular at the same time.
February 7, 2016
This book promised so much more than it delivered.
February 17, 2018
Originally posted on https://josbookblog.co.uk/
At Hawthorn Time is Melissa Harrison's second novel, and follow the lives of four people living in the small village of Lodeshill:
• Howard and Kitty, who have moved from London seeking the country idyll
• Nomadic Jack, who walks to Lodeshill seeking work on a farm, and going out of his way to avoid civilisation where possible, sleeping outdoors and living off the land
• Jamie, who has lived in Lodeshill for all of his 19 years, and dreams of escaping the village life (and acquiring the funds to 'pimp' his car)
The novel has a strong opening - you, the reader, are first at the scene of a car crash on an early May morning. The cause, who is involved and the consequences are not revealed at this stage, but the image stays with you. From this shocking opening scene, the book moves back in time by a month, and tells the reader of the events leading up to the accident and how we arrive at such a horrific climax.
I love this book! Harrison writes beautifully, and her characters are well developed. They are also normal. Completely and utterly normal. They are just like people you might see in the street, or in a pub, which is rare today. It's so refreshing.
As in her début novel, Clay, nature is given a key role in the proceedings. The interaction of nature and man is brought to the fore, generally with negative connotations and a sense that we are encroaching: "It was a new town, still more like a wound than a scar". And there's a clear message that we don't always see nature, even when it's all around us, staring us in the face.
This novel made me feel sad, in some respects, for the way in which sleepy little villages like Lodeshill are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century, willing or no. Work previously done by man and beast is now left to machinery, industrial units have appeared nearby. It made me feel like we're rapidly losing what little natural habitat, and ways of life, we have left. But despite all of this, nature endures. It doesn't care for our trials and heartaches. It carries on, regardless.
If you're looking for a novel with lots of action, a fast pace and an 'OMG' twist, this probably isn't for you. But, this novel is beautifully evocative, and I can't recommend it enough.
At Hawthorn Time is Melissa Harrison's second novel, and follow the lives of four people living in the small village of Lodeshill:
• Howard and Kitty, who have moved from London seeking the country idyll
• Nomadic Jack, who walks to Lodeshill seeking work on a farm, and going out of his way to avoid civilisation where possible, sleeping outdoors and living off the land
• Jamie, who has lived in Lodeshill for all of his 19 years, and dreams of escaping the village life (and acquiring the funds to 'pimp' his car)
The novel has a strong opening - you, the reader, are first at the scene of a car crash on an early May morning. The cause, who is involved and the consequences are not revealed at this stage, but the image stays with you. From this shocking opening scene, the book moves back in time by a month, and tells the reader of the events leading up to the accident and how we arrive at such a horrific climax.
I love this book! Harrison writes beautifully, and her characters are well developed. They are also normal. Completely and utterly normal. They are just like people you might see in the street, or in a pub, which is rare today. It's so refreshing.
As in her début novel, Clay, nature is given a key role in the proceedings. The interaction of nature and man is brought to the fore, generally with negative connotations and a sense that we are encroaching: "It was a new town, still more like a wound than a scar". And there's a clear message that we don't always see nature, even when it's all around us, staring us in the face.
This novel made me feel sad, in some respects, for the way in which sleepy little villages like Lodeshill are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century, willing or no. Work previously done by man and beast is now left to machinery, industrial units have appeared nearby. It made me feel like we're rapidly losing what little natural habitat, and ways of life, we have left. But despite all of this, nature endures. It doesn't care for our trials and heartaches. It carries on, regardless.
If you're looking for a novel with lots of action, a fast pace and an 'OMG' twist, this probably isn't for you. But, this novel is beautifully evocative, and I can't recommend it enough.
January 16, 2026
Erstes Buch von meinem Sub dieses Jahr.
Ich muss sagen, da war ein totaler Cover-Kauf verziert mit "Oh cool, englische Countryside Story".
Die ersten 100 Seiten habe ich auch sehr gerne gelesen. Stark an Poesie mäandert die Geschichte so durch die Landschaft, wir schlafen mit einem "Landstreicher" im Wald, wir wachen in einem wunderschönen Cottage auf, wir sind an der Seite eines jungen Mannes, der mit dem Erwachsenwerden strudelt. Die verschiedenen Figuren werden langsam eingeführt und ich war noch sehr gespannt, wie sie sich am Ende alle begegnen, bzw. wie sie miteinander verknüpft sind.
Ja und dann... mändert die Geschichte weiter, die poetische Landschaft wird zum Hauptdartsteller, die Figuren mit ihren Problemen rücken in die Hintergrund. Szenen, die scheinbar absolut keinen Sinn haben für irgendein Development reihen sich aneinander.
Und am Ende? Absolut nicht zufriedenstellendes Chaos, niemand scheint irgendeine Erkenntnis zu haben, Sodom und Gomorra.
Das Cover kann man sich an die Wand hängen, den Inhalt NICHT.
Ich muss sagen, da war ein totaler Cover-Kauf verziert mit "Oh cool, englische Countryside Story".
Die ersten 100 Seiten habe ich auch sehr gerne gelesen. Stark an Poesie mäandert die Geschichte so durch die Landschaft, wir schlafen mit einem "Landstreicher" im Wald, wir wachen in einem wunderschönen Cottage auf, wir sind an der Seite eines jungen Mannes, der mit dem Erwachsenwerden strudelt. Die verschiedenen Figuren werden langsam eingeführt und ich war noch sehr gespannt, wie sie sich am Ende alle begegnen, bzw. wie sie miteinander verknüpft sind.
Ja und dann... mändert die Geschichte weiter, die poetische Landschaft wird zum Hauptdartsteller, die Figuren mit ihren Problemen rücken in die Hintergrund. Szenen, die scheinbar absolut keinen Sinn haben für irgendein Development reihen sich aneinander.
Und am Ende? Absolut nicht zufriedenstellendes Chaos, niemand scheint irgendeine Erkenntnis zu haben, Sodom und Gomorra.
Das Cover kann man sich an die Wand hängen, den Inhalt NICHT.
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