Encarnita's Journey

by Joan Lingard

It is 1920 and the beautiful village of Yegen, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, awakens to a new year. The wild flowers, poppies, lavender, rosemary and thyme fill the air with their enchanting scent as the setting sun streaks vivid bands of pink and purple across the sky. For years Yegen’s small community has continued in its own quiet way, knowing little of the outside world. But the arrival of Gerald Brenan, the British writer, and his string of artistic and literary visitors, brings a new excitement to the sultry town. But Gerald is not the only new arrival; in a dusty stable a child is born. With her dark hair and wide, soot-black eyes, the young Encarnita was as beautiful as she was serious. Growing up in Yegen, with the reflective Virginia Woolf, witty Lytton Strachey and other Bloomsbury group friends of Don Geraldo visiting the village regularly, Encarnita learned many stories. But after the passing of eighty years and many miles, there is still one tale left to tell… Exquisitely written, Encarnita’s Journey is a tale as beautiful as its Spanish setting, with touches of true insight into the lives of its literati cast and dark-eyed heroine. Accompany Encarnita from Yegen to Scotland’s bustling capital, and be filled with wonder every step of the way.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Joan Lingard was born in Edinburgh, in the Old Town, but grew up in Belfast where she lived until she was 18. She attended Strandtown Primary and then got a scholarship into Bloomfied Collegiate. She has three daughters and five grandchildren, and now lives in Edinburgh with her Canadian husband.

Lingard has written novels for both adults and children. She is probably most famous for the teenage-aimed Kevin and Sadie series, which have sold over one million copies and have been reprinted many times since.

Her first novel Liam's Daughter was an adult-orientated novel published in 1963. Her first children's novel was The Twelfth Day of July (the first of the five Kevin and Sadie books) in 1970.

Lingard received the prestigious West German award the "Buxtehuder Bulle" in 1986 for Across the Barricades. Tug of War has also received great success: shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 1989, The Federation of Children's Book Group Award 1989, runner up in the Lancashire Children's Book Club of the year 1990 and shortlisted for the Sheffield Book Award. In 1998, her book Tom and the Tree House won the Scottish Arts Council Children's Book Award. Her most recent novel, What to Do About Holly was released in August 2009.

Lingard was awarded an MBE in 1998 for services to children's literature.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book review
Encarnita’s Journey by Joan Lingard
Alison and Busby
7 out of 10
Joan Lingard is one of those writers with a considerable body of work, who just gets on with the craft of writing, whether it is for Children, or Adults.
Encarnita’s Journey starts of in Edinburgh, where Encarnita, and her daughter Concepcion are looking for work, before really starting in 1920, at the very moment of Encarnita’s birth, in a paragraph that is not for the squeamish. Throughout her childhood, growing up in Yegen, in the shadow of the first world war, Encarnita’s life takes on many different colours, from dealings with real life figures such as Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington, and Virginia Woolf.
Although Encarnita’s life is actually pretty uneventful (she has a child, a number of jobs, that change due to economic forces, loses lovers and family members) it is the detail that make Encarnita’s Journey such a good read, from the research that went into the names, setting the time lines and places so that she would have met the real people that are mentioned, to making the whole book read as a believable, worthwhile life.
Although the changes that are bought by war are felt, and there are elements of sadness, and pathos, as there is with every book of this nature, there is also a resounding sense of hope, of discovery, which is what sets Encarnita out on her journey, to live the life she has been given, and to find out all that she can in a world that is always changing.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 actual