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A Mile of River
Jess would just like to be a normal teenager, go to dances and kiss boys, take her exams and dream of a future far away from the remote farm she shares with her brother and brutal father. This is a startling and original debut novel, set during the English drought of 1976.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published April 22, 2008
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52 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 24, 2019
Beautiful story.
July 25, 2014
I loved everything about this novel - the style of writing, the characters, the plot, the setting, the voice - and found it a really emotionally engaging read. I was six years old during the summer of '76, when the novel is set, and felt I was getting a glimpse into the lives of the type of people who were farming the land that surrounded the town I grew up in. Brilliant.
November 29, 2019
Living on an isolated farm, 17 year old Jess is a bright, ambitious teenager who dreams of becoming a doctor. However, since her mother’s unexplained disappearance over eight years previously, when her brother Tom was a baby, she has been a surrogate mother to him, and housekeeper/ farm labourer to her inflexible, controlling, unsociable father. The story is set in the hot, dry summer of 1976, as Jess prepares to sit her “A” levels, and as the ever-worsening drought threatens the future of the already struggling farm. She is feeling an increasing need to break away from her life of drudgery; to enjoy, with her friends, the normal pursuits of an adolescent, and to discover the reasons why her fun-loving mother abandoned them all. As the summer progresses, the almost unbearable heat increases all the tensions in the family.
From her opening sentence, the quality of Judith Allnatt’s writing captured my interest. Her style is spare, and very effectively conveys a picture of a family “living on the edge”, both financially and emotionally; it also paints a vivid picture of rural life. As the drought continues it exposes all the cracks in the family relationships, as well as in the earth: the feeling of relentless heat seems to rise from the page. I felt increasingly caught up in the claustrophobia and suspense as Jess fought for her survival, and as she discovered the true and shocking facts of her mother’s disappearance.
All the characters were truly memorable: their various struggles with love, loss, despair, rage and change were powerfully portrayed. The river running through the farm, but rapidly drying up, became a character in its own right – not only as its water was essential to the very survival of the farm, but also as a metaphor for Jess’s escape route from the restrictions of her life in the family home.
This is an unforgettable and moving “coming of age” story which is, ultimately, full of cautious optimism – a remarkable debut novel.
August 13, 2017
Unlike The Silk Factory it took me longer to get hooked by this tale of teenage Jess and her miserable existence on her father's farm over the drought of 1976. Yearning to escape to university yet tethered to the failing family business and caring for her younger brother Jess is haunted by the disappearance on her mother 9 years earlier
December 9, 2018
A Coming of Age Novel:
Set in the long hot summer of 1976 this is the story of Jess a 17 year old living with her father and little brother on an isolated farm. I enjoyed it and it brought back that summer. There were some beautifully described scenes and it was a gentle pleasure to read, despite poor Jess's miserable existence. The ending was particularly good.
Set in the long hot summer of 1976 this is the story of Jess a 17 year old living with her father and little brother on an isolated farm. I enjoyed it and it brought back that summer. There were some beautifully described scenes and it was a gentle pleasure to read, despite poor Jess's miserable existence. The ending was particularly good.
March 1, 2024
Prachtig, heftig, droevig, hoopgevend en liefdevol verhaal. Hoe één gebeurtenis een heel gezin kan ontwrichten en een tienermeisje kan dwingen in een rol die totaal niet geschikt is voor haar.
Een roman over het zware boerenleven in één van de ergste hittegolven ooit en hoe ieder van hen zijn uiterste best moet doen om te (over)leven en probeert om dromen te doen uitkomen.
Heel goed debuut, ik ben benieuwd naar haarvolgende boek.
Een roman over het zware boerenleven in één van de ergste hittegolven ooit en hoe ieder van hen zijn uiterste best moet doen om te (over)leven en probeert om dromen te doen uitkomen.
Heel goed debuut, ik ben benieuwd naar haarvolgende boek.
July 18, 2025
Evocative and authentic, especially for someone who’s dealt with farmers and lived in Northants. Memories of 1976 and the dwindling pool of water in Pitsford reservoir and different coloured water in the pipes at school as supplies were switched!
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August 7, 2021to-read
July 18, 2023
Een prachtig boek!
February 12, 2013
Set in the long hot summer of 1976, this is the story of seventeen-year-old Jess and her younger brother Tom. Jess and Tom live on a farm in the heart of the English countryside with their father Henry. Their mother left many years ago, when Tom was just a baby. She drove away one day and Jess and Tom have not seen her or heard from her since. Jess wants to be an ordinary teenage girl, she dreams of studying medicine, of going to the local fair and the end of term dances. She's beginning to take an interest in boys and longs to be like her friends. Her father Henry expects Jess to be a mother figure to Tom, to prepare the meals, wash the clothes and clean the house - he is a brutal, cold man who shows no love towards his children at all. They are expected to help out on the farm - a farm which is struggling and is in debt to the bank, yet Henry is too proud to ask for help.
One evening, when Henry is at the local pub, Jess finds her mother's diary wedged at the back of a chest of drawers. This diary is the only thing that she has that links her to the woman who left them. Henry refuses to speak about her, and all of her belongings are long gone. Although there is little of note in the diary, Jess treasures it.
As Jess becomes more and more determined to make something of her life, and Henry becomes more desperate to save the farm, the temperatures rise both inside and outside. The story turns darker and more menacing when Jess makes a discovery that will rock her world and change everything that she has ever believed. Coupled with a disaster on the farm, this is the turning point for the family.
A Mile of River is a beautifully written story of family relationships and how one lie can lead to another and in turn, can shape a life and a future. Judith Allnatt has cleverly interwoven Jess's present story with that of her mother Sylvie - giving the reader a real insight into her life and her marriage to Henry.
The characterisation is superb. Henry is a selfish and mean man, his past has soured his future, yet he made his own past, and although the reader can understand to an extent what has made him behave in the way that he does, it didn't make me like him at all. He is a coward who refuses to face up to his failings.
This really is a fabulous debut novel and although it is very dark in places, the characters of Jess and Tom, and their hope shines through. The sense of place, alongside the realism of the stifling heat and parched earth add volumes to this excellent story.
One evening, when Henry is at the local pub, Jess finds her mother's diary wedged at the back of a chest of drawers. This diary is the only thing that she has that links her to the woman who left them. Henry refuses to speak about her, and all of her belongings are long gone. Although there is little of note in the diary, Jess treasures it.
As Jess becomes more and more determined to make something of her life, and Henry becomes more desperate to save the farm, the temperatures rise both inside and outside. The story turns darker and more menacing when Jess makes a discovery that will rock her world and change everything that she has ever believed. Coupled with a disaster on the farm, this is the turning point for the family.
A Mile of River is a beautifully written story of family relationships and how one lie can lead to another and in turn, can shape a life and a future. Judith Allnatt has cleverly interwoven Jess's present story with that of her mother Sylvie - giving the reader a real insight into her life and her marriage to Henry.
The characterisation is superb. Henry is a selfish and mean man, his past has soured his future, yet he made his own past, and although the reader can understand to an extent what has made him behave in the way that he does, it didn't make me like him at all. He is a coward who refuses to face up to his failings.
This really is a fabulous debut novel and although it is very dark in places, the characters of Jess and Tom, and their hope shines through. The sense of place, alongside the realism of the stifling heat and parched earth add volumes to this excellent story.
December 18, 2012
Debut book from this author and it sounded like Jodi Picoult so I thought I'd give it a go.
The alternating POV in this book are the only similarities with Jodi however. Where Jodi's books have that compelling and addictive quality about them, making you compelled to read on, this author certainly couldn't achieve the same thing and I wasn't interested in picking it up sometimes.
Basically the protagonist is a young girl who is acting as the mother figure in her household as her mother 'disappeared' - long time ago. She has to baby her brother and work excessively on her father's farm and isn't really allowed to have a life of her own. One day he finds a diary belonging to her mom hidden away and she begins to read.
There start Sylvia's POV sections in which she details her life with Henry at the farm before leading onto the last night at the farm.
It's not a bad book. It's good but that's it, It's nothing special and doesn't stand out from any other books I've read this year. I found all the farming details to be a bit excessive and boring and the plot really slow to develop. Had it developed a bit quicker and the book a bit shorter perhaps I would have liked it more but I felt the author dragged it out for page county's sake. The conclusion wasn't surprising. I had already foreseen it coming as this book doesn't make you think. You just know because its predictable.
The characters were her strong point being as I thought they were quite developed and God, it's a long time since I'e found a character who I loathed like Henry, but sadly it takes more than characters and a slow winded plot to keep me interested. I need something a bit better than just good so won't be reading any more of this author's work. I'll stick to Jodi Picoult.
The alternating POV in this book are the only similarities with Jodi however. Where Jodi's books have that compelling and addictive quality about them, making you compelled to read on, this author certainly couldn't achieve the same thing and I wasn't interested in picking it up sometimes.
Basically the protagonist is a young girl who is acting as the mother figure in her household as her mother 'disappeared' - long time ago. She has to baby her brother and work excessively on her father's farm and isn't really allowed to have a life of her own. One day he finds a diary belonging to her mom hidden away and she begins to read.
There start Sylvia's POV sections in which she details her life with Henry at the farm before leading onto the last night at the farm.
It's not a bad book. It's good but that's it, It's nothing special and doesn't stand out from any other books I've read this year. I found all the farming details to be a bit excessive and boring and the plot really slow to develop. Had it developed a bit quicker and the book a bit shorter perhaps I would have liked it more but I felt the author dragged it out for page county's sake. The conclusion wasn't surprising. I had already foreseen it coming as this book doesn't make you think. You just know because its predictable.
The characters were her strong point being as I thought they were quite developed and God, it's a long time since I'e found a character who I loathed like Henry, but sadly it takes more than characters and a slow winded plot to keep me interested. I need something a bit better than just good so won't be reading any more of this author's work. I'll stick to Jodi Picoult.
June 23, 2008
Jess is a seventeen year old girl growing up on a farm in the midlands during the nineteen seventies. Her mother left home when Jess was much younger; her father is a domineering, controlling figure. Jess wants to do the things that other teenagers do and she has ambitions to go to university to study medicine, all of which her father opposes adamantly. So she takes refuge in dreaming of her mother's return.
Now, as the countryside is gripped by drought and Jess' father's old-fashioned ideas about farming and status bring bankruptcy ever nearer, the truth about her mother's disappearance becomes clear.
This intensely claustrophobic book makes difficult reading at times but it is rewarding for its acute observation both of nature and of human behaviour, and for the authenticity of its characterisation. It's not a feel-good book but it is one that feels true.
Now, as the countryside is gripped by drought and Jess' father's old-fashioned ideas about farming and status bring bankruptcy ever nearer, the truth about her mother's disappearance becomes clear.
This intensely claustrophobic book makes difficult reading at times but it is rewarding for its acute observation both of nature and of human behaviour, and for the authenticity of its characterisation. It's not a feel-good book but it is one that feels true.
July 6, 2016
A beautifully written and very moving coming of age story set in the long, hot summer of 1976.
It tells the story of a fractured and broken family dealing with a troubled and sad history, and the impact upon the two children, Jess and Tom, and their controlling father, Henry.
The pace of the book is initially slow echoing the hot, heavy, stifling summer, but just as a bout of hot weather ends in a powerful storm, the pace of the story gathers and builds, reaching a dramatic climax.
The descriptions are vivid and so real, that the reader is right there - you feel the heat and the oppression, you see the parched land, you smell the smoke and you feel Jess and Tom's misery and anxiety.
This was Judith Allnatt's debut novel, and her subsequent titles are equally enjoyable and satisfying reads. Recommended.
It tells the story of a fractured and broken family dealing with a troubled and sad history, and the impact upon the two children, Jess and Tom, and their controlling father, Henry.
The pace of the book is initially slow echoing the hot, heavy, stifling summer, but just as a bout of hot weather ends in a powerful storm, the pace of the story gathers and builds, reaching a dramatic climax.
The descriptions are vivid and so real, that the reader is right there - you feel the heat and the oppression, you see the parched land, you smell the smoke and you feel Jess and Tom's misery and anxiety.
This was Judith Allnatt's debut novel, and her subsequent titles are equally enjoyable and satisfying reads. Recommended.
July 15, 2010
I actually read the paperback edition of this on a train journey and found it totally engrossing. It is a coming of age story set in the seventies in a long hot summer before the advent of internet or mobile phones. Judith Allnatt must have lived on a farm because the evocation of the rural life is brilliantly done. It is a story of how a family can hem itself in by its own beliefs, and that sometimes to save face can be more important to some people than their own flesh and blood. The family relationships are realistically drawn, the dialogue full of sub-text and the plot is a real pageturner. I was unsurprised to see it was a winner in the Portico Prize for Literature. Definitely worth every penny.
September 24, 2013
A coming-of-age novel about a young girl growing up on an isolated Midlands farm during the draught of 1976. Jess's mother has seemingly left her and her much younger brother without any explanation, while Jess's father is increasingly morose and callous. Struggling to take her A levels while bringing up her young brother and helping out on the farm, Jess understandably feels resentful. During that long, hot summer, emotions run high even as the river levels drop, revealing a dark secret. The way the farm is affected by the almost unbearable heat and lack of rain is vividly portrayed, especially when one has lived throught it, as I did. A worthy debut novel.
March 28, 2016
I really enjoyed reading this, perhaps because my grandparents and uncle had a dairy farm in the south of England and I spent many summers in the early eighties building dens from bales of hay and helping to feed the calves.
It's very well written, with great characters, (my favourite was Grandpa), and good pacing. I liked the way the reader got insights into Sylvie's experience, and I did feel sorry for her the more I learned about her story.
At the start I was convinced that Jess was pregnant, with some of the hints that were being dropped. But this didn't come to anything. And on a similar note, I did worry that she'd had unprotected sex.
It's very well written, with great characters, (my favourite was Grandpa), and good pacing. I liked the way the reader got insights into Sylvie's experience, and I did feel sorry for her the more I learned about her story.
At the start I was convinced that Jess was pregnant, with some of the hints that were being dropped. But this didn't come to anything. And on a similar note, I did worry that she'd had unprotected sex.
May 20, 2010
Interesting analysis on the breakdown of the family, where you are faced with developing youth desparate to follow the river out her prison on the farm. Standing firmly in her way is her father just like the inflexible mile of river that encloses the farm on which they live.
April 16, 2011
This is a Library Book and Hartwell Book Club read.
I really enjoyed this book. I felt quite sorry for the main characters, and didn't quite guess the twist in the tail. Just a great read about a summer I vaguely remember in 1976.
I really enjoyed this book. I felt quite sorry for the main characters, and didn't quite guess the twist in the tail. Just a great read about a summer I vaguely remember in 1976.
Want to read
June 7, 2011Ok so I got to chapter 4 and got kinda bored :/ it probably would've got better but I decided I'd rather read my other new book, so I'll go back to it eventually.
January 5, 2014
I loved this book, a gentle read between semesters but really engaging. definitely romantic, magical and tragic
March 27, 2017
Ja mooi!!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews