All Rivers Run Free

by Natasha Carthew

'Raw, passionate, hallucinatory' Rachel Holmes
'Extraordinary, beautiful and wild allegory for our times' Katharine Norbury
'Hypnotic and powerful' Fanny Blake, Daily Mail

A woman on the edge of the sea finds a girl on the edge of life. On the flooded coast of Cornwall, Ia Pendilly ekes out a fierce life in a childless marriage, as rough and stubborn as the sea. When a strange young girl washes up on the beach, Ia's rescue is only the beginning of a dangerous journey ­- one that will take them downriver, into the fringes of a collapsing society and for Ia, towards something she hopes might be love. A vision of the near-future and an odyssey of motherhood, All Rivers Run Free is a true original from a powerful new voice..

Genres: Fiction, Dystopia, Literary Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

Published May 14, 2019

About the author

Natasha Carthew is a working-class writer from Cornwall. She is published by Hodder, Bloomsbury, Quercus and the National Trust. Her new book Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir of Poverty, Nature and Resilience, is out now with Coronet/Hodder.

She is known for writing on Socioeconomic issues and working-class representation in literature for several publications and programmes; including The Booker Prize Foundation, ITV, Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, The Royal Society of Authors Journal, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, The Bookseller, The Guardian, The Observer, Mslexia, The Dark Mountain Project, The Big Issue and The Economist. Natasha guest edited the working-class edition of The Bookseller (Nov 2022) and is recipient of The Bookseller Rising Star Award 2022.

Natasha is Founder and Artistic Director of The Working Class Writers Festival and The Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers in association with Octopus/Hachette.
She is represented by Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedman Literary Agency.

Reviews

[Ronnie Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ia Pendilly lives a solitary existence in a caravan on the North coast of Cornwall, bracketed by the wild sea and rugged land, and by a bully of a husband and utter hopelessness. Ia's one solace are the memories of her childhood with sister Evie, of times spent pottering and playing in the caves at home, free and happy. Now, Ia is consumed with loneliness, those sunny days backalong keeping her afloat. When a she finds a wisp of a child washed up on the shore, her prayers are answered. As Ia nurses the girl back to health, the girl in her own way restores something in Ia, a strength and courage that has lain tucked away for years. Soon a bond unlike any other grows between Ia and the girl. They are no longer two strangers. They are mother and child. When Bran discovers the girl, Ia packs up her small world in a sack and flees, finally escaping the torment of his cruel words and crueller fists. As she and the girl start off on their journey, they are met with dangers that threaten to part them. Following the river home comes with its risks but surely they are risks worth taking.



Ia's tale is at times disturbing and others incredibly touching. Her cousin and common-law husband Bran is a bully, his wrath wrapping around her and suffocating every pocket of happiness. She awaits the days he goes out to fish with bated breath. Then she can have the caravan and cove to herself, to pick among the flotsam and jetsam and be free to imagine what motherhood might be like. She has suffered the heartache of several miscarriages and she carries the loss each and every second. Lonely and afraid, Ia's life takes a sudden shift when she finds the girl washed up in the cove and she feels a hope that has eluded her for so many years. The bond these two share was really touching. I loved following their journey.




I can't write this review without really quickly mentioning the setting. As I'm from Cornwall it was so lovely to read Natasha Carthew's exquisite descriptions of its wild and rugged beauty. She has encapsulated it magnificently in her prose and for a few hours I really did feel as if I was in Cornwall, hearing the waves and seagulls. I especially loved seeing The Mermaid of Zennor briefly mentioned. It's a fascinating legend - I've popped a link here! Carthew's narrative is sharp and distinctive.




All Rivers Run Free is a raw, exquisitely told tale of loneliness, forgiveness, love, hope and finding your way home. Breathtaking!


Raw. Compelling. Breathtaking.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the coast of Cornwall lives, Ia Pendilly. She is eking out an existence in a caravan in a Britain that is under military rule after being ravaged by floods and cut off from Europe. She is cohabiting with a bloke called Bran, who is some sort of cousin. He is involved in some fairly dodgy stuff as well as his regular job and treats her like dirt when he appears back at irregular intervals.

Whilst walking the beaches finds a child washed up who is just clinging onto life. Nursing this girl back to health opens once again that deep longing that she has had for a family, but she has never been able to carry any of the children she has had with Bran past a few weeks. A chance encounter with someone else shows that people can care for her and as the girl regains her strength it opens a memory and a longing for a past that she remembers. It will take courage though, and a journey downriver, with the hope of a better life.

This dystopian future set in Cornwall in the UK that that has been devastated by climate change and a collapse in society is quite a shocking read. As Ia and Jenna head south across this landscape, Carthew has captured this broken countryside well it is full of passionate and lyrical prose, which is understandable given her background as a poet who spends as much of her time outdoors as she can. It reminded me of The Devil's Highway by Gregory Nominton where his third and final story in that book is of a landscape that has been irreversibly changed from what we have today. Definitely, an author to read more of.

[Gem ~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really intricate book with a poetic, distinct narrative that brings to life the horrors and hope of a futuristic Cornwall, ruined by disaster and civil disorder. It is heartbreaking, gritty and compelling.

Thank you to Ana at Riverrun for sending me this proof copy to review in my own words.

Full review to come on the book tour in April.

[Claire (Silver Linings and Pages) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was raw, brutal and stunning.

Ia scrapes by a savage, lonely existence in a caravan along the Cornish coast. Since being orphaned at the age of twelve, she has lived with her violent cousin who is also now her common law husband. She desperately longs for a baby, and when a little girl washes up half-dead on the shore, Ia risks everything by rescuing her. Nurturing the waif emboldens Ia and reignites buried, yet important memories. She finds the courage to escape and travels downriver in search of her sister, through flood-devastated valleys, and facing constant danger in a world of civil unrest, social collapse and internal warfare.

I absolutely LOVED this book and found the protagonist so relatable. She is fierce and resourceful, but her fragility and integrity seep through her tough outer skin. Despite lifelong adversity, she still manages to see the beauty in nature, collecting found objects and never gives up on finding “a better version of herself”. It’s a very mysterious dystopian setting, and much of what has preceded the story remains unexplained, but this adds to the haunting quality of the very poetic writing. An intense and breathtaking book that didn’t shy away from vitally important issues such as abusive relationships, mental illness, infertility and miscarriage, but that also has an optimistic message of transformation and redemption. The ending blew me away - to my children’s utter bemusement, this book made me properly, properly emotional 😭 (still haven’t recovered days later, TBH!). The only slight quibbles are that the style/looser punctuation took some getting used to (but worked), and one part of the story was a teeny bit contrived. But I don’t care - this is still getting all the stars, a 5/5🌟 from me!

Thank you @anabooks and @quercusbooks for this gifted review copy - my favourite of 2019 so far.

[Thelastwordreview · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit to being intrigued when All Rivers Run Free by Natasha Carthew (riverrun) arrived I was not sure what to think. It is the story of a damaged sole in Ia Pendilly who is living in a caravan on the Cornish coast with her husband is nothing short of brutal. This is a story that that has a unique and raw. There is a heartbreaking storyline and Carthew has a unique writing style.

A futuristic world ravaged by floods and armed gangs roam and storm after storm is battering the country. People are trying to survive day by day and the rule of law has broken down. Ia is frightened to leave as she no longer knows the country that was her home and she is scared of her brute of a husband Bran. The Cornish coast is their home.
Ia walks the coastline collecting shells and then one day she finds a young girl washed up on the shoreline and the little girl is rescued. What Ia does not realise is that this little girl will waken Ia and rescue her in return. She recalls her younger sister Evie and now wants to find Evie, she is out there somewhere in a world that has changed because of floods and armed gangs. But Ia has woken and her journey is about to begin. Memories of a family and her sister will take her in danger and she will face her past, present and future.

Natasha Carthew’s writing is nothing short of lyrical and also unusual but a story that deserves to be read. The tone may be tender and heartbreaking but compelling. There is so much written into the storyline that I believe it would be the perfect book group discussion novel. A story of a young woman locked into a world she does not want to be part of with memories of a past and communities living through their own rules to survive. A story with very few characters but this is a story that does not need a long cast. A bleak, rugged and atmospheric novel. Beautifully written.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review first appeared on Read, Eat, Retreat.

'The smell of the ocean was everywhere on her not just skin but the blood and bone of her so gone through was she with seawater and Ia touched her head her fingers sticking briefly to the damp, fleshy skull. The sea had the girl faded, it was only a matter of time until the mist thinned her down to an aspic puddle…’

Ia ekes out a bleak and lonely life in a caravan on the Cornish coast, shared with her brutal cousin and common law husband, Branner. Their cove and the gang that dominates it are isolated, England beyond given over to storms, flooding, and terrifying mob rule. Ia’s experience is tragic; we learn quickly that she has lost her parents, become separated from her twin sister Evie, and trapped in an abusive relationship with her father’s cousin at just 15. The book opens with the latest in a series of miscarriages she has suffered. With that background you might think All Rivers Run Free is relentlessly depressing, but it truly isn’t. Two people, Geeva and Jenna, find their way into Ia’s life, and so begins a journey along the River Tamar toward hope, freedom, and family.

All Rivers Run Free is unlike anything I have ever read before. It is not a book to be read so much as experienced. Rachel Holmes describes it as ‘raw, passionate, hallucinatory’ and that sums it up perfectly. The imagery throughout is startlingly potent, and I found myself visualising scenes less like a film in my head, with action and dialogue playing in sequence, and more like kaleidoscopic bursts to my senses – oranges washing up on the shore (‘tiny pools of sunlight scattered on the shingle-sand’), a bonfire smoking in the distance, and in my ear the beating heart of a secret compass hidden beneath the floor.

It will be no surprise to anyone who reads this book to learn that Natasha Carthew is a poet who spends much of her time outdoors. In the best way possible, it was like reading one very long poem. At first I found it a little jarring having to slow my pace and adjust my rhythm (perhaps I don’t read enough poetry!) but my efforts were rewarded with masterful storytelling and wonderfully rich and beautiful writing. I found myself reading the same passages over and over, even whispering them to myself, testing their cadence, and just know this is one I will reread and discover something new each time.

I was instantly captivated by Ia Pendilly. Natasha Carthew said she wanted to create a character readers could root for from the start, and I absolutely did. I loved her warmth, her humour, the pleasure she could find in the simplest of things, and her tenacious pursuit of freedom in defiance of a life of loneliness, grief and abuse. ‘Brittle, but not yet broken’. I loved her, and All Rivers Run Free, fiercely.

A very special thank you to Ana McLaughlin at rivverrun and Quercus for sending me this extraordinary book.

[Jaffareadstoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ia Pengilly lives a solitary life on the Cornish coast, eking out a desolate existence, relying on her considerable wits and her innate ability to salvage the gifts the seas throw up. Her joyless relationship with her much older cousin, Bran, who uses and abuses her, and simply doesn't care enough to love her, is as bleak as her existence.

Set in some futuristic world where neither hope nor charity is allowed to flourish, gangs roam and pilfer, and when the light is on in Ia's isolated caravan, men, with their own specific needs, come a-calling.

There is a cold, cheerlessness to the story which I found utterly compelling and the barren nature of Ia's life is offset against the poetic quality of the words which rumble and turn at every opportunity. I loved the unique way that the prose skittered and danced, and was so in tune with the nature of its surroundings that it became totally immersive. I knew I was impressed when I read the opening paragraph three times, and so mesmerising is the narrative that even further into the novel I had to keep turning back to re-read a word, or a cleverly constructed sentence.

All Rivers Run Free is a story about self-discovery and self-worth, and of how lives are shaped and moulded by those we love, who are carried close to our hearts. It's also about a ferocious need to survive in a world where the dark shades of grief and loss are allowed to colour everything.

[Chantal Lyons · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could appreciate this book more, but I think I will simply never be one of those types who enjoys extremely sophisticated literature.

Carthew, a poet by trade, has not compromised with this novel. It's poetry with line breaks removed. I enjoy poetry in small bites but, sadly, my mind could never adjust - I had to work too hard to keep a grip of what was happening. Sometimes it was fun to read the sentences bridged by one word that could create two different meanings, and there were lines of pure beauty and truth. I could have happily read them in a book of poetry. They just didn't work for me in novel form.

The story is almost unrelentingly depressing, "The Road" style. I know we are supposed to appreciate such things - like the taste of fennel - but I simply needed more rays of light. I was also left quite confused at the end, unable to see what was meant to have happened to the girl that Ia found.

I'm not sure how much appeal "All Rivers Run Free" will have. I'm sure literary reviewers will celebrate it, but it is written for a very particular palate.

[Emma Robertson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sadly I dnf'd this book as I could not invest in the character of Ia despite the lyrical writing.

[Leanne Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was described in a podcast as raw and surprising, and I think I agree.
The protagonist is a 25-year-old woman named Ia who lives on the north-east coast of Cornwall with an older man who married her when she was about sixteen. Since then, she has lived apart from the rest of society, only ever seeing men who come to her for sex when her husband is away fishing for days on end. She is extremely uninformed about life beyond her caravan on the cliff and has a pitifully low self-esteem as a result.
A change begins to occur when she encounters a soldier who is unlike the other men she has met over the years. He is on the run and has nothing to offer her, yet he is obviously a good man with no interest in the partisan fighting taking place in the area. It isn't clear what the fighting is about, which gives the story a dystopian quality, but it also focuses the reader's attention on the human struggle, the fight for survival in a world gone mad.
There is a mysterious child who is key to the story as well. Thanks to the child's clear-sightedness and faith, the heroine escapes from her husband's abusive grasp and journeys down river towards her home. The journey is difficult and evokes strong memories of her childhood. I found the book fascinating in that it was more than a simple tale of escape; it was equally an allegory about trauma and the path to personal freedom. While the language is often coarse and the subject matter sometimes hard to bear, this is a book well worth reading, especially in the audio version which captures the Cornish accents beautifully.

[Pat Allmand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Natasha Carthew’s descriptions of nature are exquisite. I loved the magic realism in this story & the relatively happy ending. At times, the writing was more poetry than prose which rendered the meaning in the text a little obscure but this is a book where you have to let go, not obsess about understanding everything & when you do it suddenly all becomes clear.
Apart from being a beautiful literary work, it was a page turner with the pace picking up & kept me enthralled right to the end. I’ll definitely be reading more of her.

[Lesley-Ann Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up in the wonderful Falmouth Bookstore whilst on holiday. Move forward a month and I’m luck enough to be back in Cornwall on holiday again. But this time not far from where this book is set and we actually went to Cothele during the week.
Unsurprisingly I’ve spent a magical tow days soaking this book up.
The beautiful writing and clever use of dialect. The uplifting story. Fab reading.

[Anne Goodwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

All Rivers Run Free is an absorbing story set in a near-future anarchic Britain about rural poverty, marginalisation and the opportunity for tenderness to coexist with toughness.
Women on the edge of the ocean: All Rivers Run Free & Rainsongs - annethology http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/...

[Sonny Pengelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Natasha Carthew is a startling new voice from beyond the limits of common urban experience. She tells a tale of marginalisation and motherhood in prose that crashes like waves on rocks; rough, breathless and beautiful.

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raw, haunting, powerful. Cornwall torn apart by a dystopian future & yet the mystical energy of the landscape is still familiar. All that & a fierce female at the centre. Beautiful language and an unusual syntax that makes you feel right there with the protagonist.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to follow

[Hey On · Rating 5 out of 5]

THe best thing I’ve read in 2018!

[Joleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The words felt like running water, reading this book was calming in spite of the dystopian setting. Beautiful poetic prose and a story that held just enough hope amid the heartbreak

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a bleak book. I made it about halfway through but dislike the way it is written and the story so much I'm not going to finish it.

[Reeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the poetic style of writing.

[Rachael Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike anything I've ever read before.