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Clear
Carys Davies
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Description for Clear
Hardcover.
1843. On a remote Scottish island, Ivar, the sole occupant, leads a life of quiet isolation until the day he finds a man unconscious on the beach below the cliffs. The newcomer is John Ferguson, an impoverished church minister sent to evict Ivar and turn the island into grazing land for sheep. Unaware of the stranger's intentions, Ivar takes him into his home, and in spite of the two men having no common language, a fragile bond begins to form between them. Meanwhile on the mainland, John's wife Mary anxiously awaits news of his mission. Against the rugged backdrop ... Read moreof this faraway spot beyond Shetland, Carys Davies's intimate drama unfolds with tension and tenderness: a touching and crystalline study of ordinary people buffeted by history and a powerful exploration of the distances and connections between us. Perfectly structured and surprising at every turn, Clear is a marvel of storytelling, an exquisite short novel by a master of the form. Show Less
Product Details
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 2 to 4 working days
About Carys Davies
Carys Davies is the author of two novels, The Mission House (Granta, 2020) and West (Granta, 2018), which won the Wales Book of the Year Fiction award, was Runner-Up for the Society of Author's McKitterick Prize and was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize. Her short stories have been widely published in magazines and anthologies and broadcast on BBC Radio ... Read more4, and have won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, the Society of Authors' Olive Cook Award, the Royal Society of Literature's V S Pritchett Prize, and a Northern Writers' Award. Davies' second collection, The Redemption of Galen Pike, won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award 2015. Show Less
Reviews for Clear
A compact, taut and brilliant novel with an ingenious premise. The book is about belonging, a dying language, secrets, and a pistol in a box. I loved every page
Anthony Doerr This intriguing and inventive story escorts the reader to an unexpectedly joyous ending that hints at our contemporary interest in new ideas of what a family might be. ... Read moreThe writing style is one of clarity and reserved sensibility punctuated with an end-game needle jab. Not to be missed
Annie Proulx The sheer beauty of Clear-with its perfect sentences, its austere tenderness, and its quiet sense of disquiet-feels timeless... A poignant, profound depiction of both solitude and connection. Carys Davies has written a masterful, discreetly sublime book
Hernan Diaz An exquisite, hopeful masterpiece. Magical and humane, it is a celebration of love and courage. It will be my favourite book of 2024, and probably many more years to come
Rachel Joyce Clear is a love letter to a vanished way of life, to a landscape, and to human relationships. Captivating, tender, and satisfying, this is a novel to be savoured
Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground With CLEAR, Carys Davies has again done brilliantly what she does best - saying most by saying least. She has the rare gift of eloquent brevity - CLEAR is astute, moving, unexpected
Penelope Lively A wonderfully humane and moving depiction of loneliness and the connections forged between strangers that transcend all barriers, even language
Clare Chambers Carys Davies is a writer of enviable sentences, descriptions and scenes. The atmosphere rendered in Clear is so true and immediate, any reader will be left with a sense memory of this landscape and these people. The story is original, captivating and lasting. Exquisite stuff
Caoilinn Hughes An archipelago of short chapters, stepping stones that lead us along a narrative of such intensity that the reader's desire is to finish the book at a sitting
Bernard MacLaverty Carys Davies' great gift is believing that her characters, whether they know it or not, have in them the strength to answer back against circumstances that would annihilate them. The circumstances here, devised by the merciless rich and powerful, are the Clearances
David Constantine Another miniaturist gem by Carys Davies, in which she excels as both portrait and landscape painter
Chloe Aridjis Tender, riveting and inventive is CLEAR, the newest offering and masterpiece from the brilliant Carys Davies. It will take your breath away
Sarah Jessica Parker The Welsh novelist writes epics in miniature... It is a tender, humane book
Sunday Times
Short, powerful... an unforgettable tale of resilience, change and hope from the award-winning writer
PA Media
Gripping... feels a bit like a thriller set against a history lesson rendered fantastically vivid
Vogue
A lyrical exploration of the landscape, of loneliness, and of human relationships... A perfectly crafted novel
Historical Novel Society
A memorable and beautifully told tale
Scottish Herald
Her own language is a marvel of eloquent restraint
Observer
An astonishing novel
Scotland on Sunday
This quiet, careful novel feels built from the very elements themselves... Novels this unassuming, surprising and profound are special indeed
Tortoise Media
Some wonderfully atmospheric writing
Sunday Times
Wonderful... Tense and tender, I absolutely loved it
Scottish Field
Clear is a love letter to the scorching power of language, a power that Davies has long understood... Davies is a writer of immense talent and deep humanity, capable of balancing devastating audacity with equally devastating restraint
Guardian
An atmospheric marvel... It overflows with all the fundamentals of humanity: life, love, connection, empathy... The characters are so vividly alive, so full of feeling that you can almost hear their hearts pounding
I Newspaper
There is great pleasure to be found of Davies's clear and calm prose, her wry asides and deep love of language, and in the book's quiet optimism. It is a slim, masterfully carved gem of a story that you won't easily forget
Evening Standard
Amid the barbarity of mass evictions, with all their modern resonances, Davies ultimately offers us a story that is hopeful and humane
Irish Times
A lucid and stylish prose writer, Davies is excellent at revealing characters through the language they use and through the gestures and tonal shifts that betray their weaknesses, their prejudices and hollow sentiments
TLS
Another epic in miniature. Davies manages to pack in more drama and nuance into 160 pages than other authors manage in novels twice that length
Spectator
Mustering a cast of highly individual characters, Davies's idiosyncratic novel brilliantly explores a forgotten corner of history
Daily Mail
Told in Davies's trademark unvarnished prose, this is a taut, tense novella
Newspaper
An exquisitely told story of the coming together of souls in a remote location, with sublime storytelling
Prima
This is a gem of a novel that shines with tenderness and courage, and shimmers with the love of a long-lost language... Sublime
Daily Mail
The magic is in Davies's handling of her material... To deliver an epic story in miniature like this - in fewer than 150 pages - is an exceptional achievement
The Critic
A powerful novella that deals with loneliness, human connection and the power of language with beautiful economy... Clear is a wonderful example of an apparently small and contained story that has a huge heart and universal themes, looking at how we communicate and connect with each other on a fundamental level
Big Issue
A profoundly intimate tale of loneliness, longing and the lengths you will go to for love
Marie Clare
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