Tirzah and the Prince of Crows

by Deborah Kay Davies

From the award-winning author, a hauntingly beautiful coming of age novel set in the Welsh valleys of the 1970s Tirzah has lived a life of seclusion in a staunchly religious family. But when she begins to struggle against the confines of her community, trying to find her own way in the world, life takes an unexpected turn that ultimately teaches her that freedom springs from within. Written with an almost fable-esque quality and drawing on Welsh mythology, Tirzah and the Prince of Crows is an intensely immersive, layered and powerful novel about life forces and the healing power of love.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Novels, Contemporary, British Literature

400 pages, Paperback

Published June 6, 2019

About the author

Deborah Kay Davies started writing and publishing when she was a mature student and taught Creative Writing at Cardiff University. Her first collection of stories, Grace, Tamar and Laszlo the Beautiful, won the 2009 Wales Book of the Year Award. She has also published a collection of poems, Things You Think I Don’t Know. She lives in Wales.

Reviews

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A coming of age story about Tirzah who grows up in Welsh Valleys in 1970s. It's a story about love, religion and finding yourself and self freedom. It's not a feelgood novel however it's not dark as "reasons she goes to the woods." and not at all disturbing but it feels raw and emotional nevertheless. I enjoyed the book but I wasn't as mesmerised by the story. Deborah Kay Davies is an author I will keep my eye on and read when I find her books.

[Kayleigh | Welsh Book Fairy · Rating 4 out of 5]

— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Tirzah and the Prince of Crows
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: N/A
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Deborah Kay Davies
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Historical Fiction
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 4th October 2018
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 4/5

This story is loosely based on Welsh mythology, more specifically; Bran the Blessed. Tirzah has lived an extremely sheltered life in the Welsh valleys. Her parents are members of the Christian church and are experts at telling Tirzah what to do and how to behave. As Tirzah's mind wanders she unintentionally and continuously fails to meet the standards her parents and God require of her. When she meets Bran and has decidedly ungovernable thoughts about him, Tirzah swings between becoming the nice Christian girl that everybody expects, and becoming the free spirit connected to nature, like Bran.

Now, firstly, I want to exaggerate just how well-written Tirzah and the Prince of Crows is, to be honest, the intricate usage of semantics and imagery is probably one of the best I have ever read, the only reason this book didn't score a 5/5 for me, is because it is simply not my cup of tea. I don't usually buy or request books with a strong religious tone to it, but I was far too intrigued by the Welsh author and the Welsh setting. Being from South Wales myself, I felt like me reading and reviewing this novel would be a pleasure, and I was correct; Deborah Kay Davies makes me think of the Welsh valley's in a more textured light.

The use of colloquial language may not appeal to some, but for me, every word spoken was like my friends, my mum, my nan, speaking to me. This book made me crave tea and toast because that is the ultimate comfort meal of an upset Welsh person. I thought it was a down-to-earth touch, that adds to the fictitious existence of the story.

Not to say that I was upset reading this book, because that wasn't the case, I was genuinely enthralled with the narrative. I found Tirzah to be a truly great, three dimensional character with lots of personality, and all that awesome ying and yang that makes up a real person. The side characters were just as in depth. Biddy and Osian, Tirzah's best friends, are the kind of characters that you root for when you least expect it.

Saying that, Tirzah could get a little annoying. A little woe's me. But, her insight is mature and deep, and she's not annoying to the point where I'm feeling physically frustrated, but more where I think now and then 'get on with it,' and the story continues.

For the plot, Deborah Kay Davies has explored the use of welsh mythology to tell us this tale, and her portrayal of Bendigeidran - who is a king in Welsh mythology - through her character Bran, is a magical and interesting stance. In our mythology, he is the God of Ravens, and that is depicted throughout the story to entice the reader into the most captivating imagery that is both real and fable-like.

I don't want to give any of the plot away because if I'm being honest, there isn't much of one. Character development is more of a theme here, and although this book isn't exciting to read, per se, but it is pretty tense, and the small side stories that happen within are made to feel no less important than the main plot.

This is an interesting piece of work and I fully recommend it if you love the fairy-tale feel.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC of this book.

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[Sian Lile-Pastore · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourite thing about this book was the atmosphere and sense of place - i loved the 70s Wales setting and really related to the way people spoke 'flip' and 'blimmin' all the bread and butter, and getting stuff out of the pantry and going to the co-op ... the chapel/sunday school going was also pretty relatable to me as someone who was made to sit through chapel on a sunday...
It all very much reminded me of being at my Grandma's house in Swansea (there was stuff about the grandad in his greenhouse which reminded me so much of my grandad), which was an absolute delight.

So, I really enjoyed the book and would read more Deborah Kay Davies, but I did't *love* the plot (the ending didn't really do anything for me?) and didn't 100% connect with the characters. But I did enjoy reading it, does that make sense?

[Kirsty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a disappointment. There is none of the flair here that can be found in Kay Davies’ previous books. I found myself getting bored of reading this after only completing around twenty pages. The characters were problematic, and I just wasn’t getting enough from it to justify reading it to the end.

[Moray Teale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deborah Kay Davies has created something quite beautiful with Tirzah and the Prince of Crows. Tirzah is a teenager in the Welsh Valleys of the 1970s, studying for her exams and increasingly doubtful of the strict religion and patriarchy of her community. She swings constantly between wanting to please those she loves, to be deemed “good” and her distance from her parents’ world. When she meets the rootless, volatile Brân she recognises her own isolation. His strangeness, half-mad and half-mystical, both fascinate and repel her. Tirzah is haunted by the half-wild boy, which ultimately change her life forever.

Davies is equally skilled at building her characters and her world, each lovingly and convincingly crafted. Each member of Tirzah’s family and community is fully realised in all their faith and love and weakness, I felt the truth of every decision and action even when I hated them and couldn’t sympathise. That’s quite a feat.

There’s also an extraordinary sense of place and time in the story as Davies’ lyrical, poetic descriptions evoke the landscape of Tirzah’s Wales in all its changeable glory. The way that mythology saturates the prose intensifies the otherworldly nature of these landscapes, highlighting the mystical elements of Tirzah’s encounters with Brân. In this it is strongly reminiscent of Alan Garner’s wonderful The Owl Service.

It’s a heartbreaking story about the struggle between conformity and independence, especially where the will to conform comes from those you love. It sheds a light on the courage it takes to break away from the familiar and to define your own freedom.

[Nesta Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In general, I very much enjoyed this book and the writing style - I personally have no problem with the formatting, but I imagine having no speech marks would be very confusing for some people.

There are vague allusions to Welsh mythology (most notably Brân but also the white owl could be a reference to Blodeuedd) but I personally didn't find them particularly stark and I suppose I was just wishing for bit of magic/mythology. I'm also very confused about Brân being associated with crows when the figure of Brân the Blessed is represented exclusively by ravens (Brân can mean raven or crow, but I still found it odd). It just seemed like a weird change to me and I don't understand why this was changed, particularly as crows are connected to war goddesses within wider Celtic tradition.

I personally felt that the story slowed down in the last quarter, and I wasn't impressed by the ending - I didn't find it particularly satisfactory. However, I really enjoyed the writing style and I would really like to read more of Davies' work.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

We follow Tirzah, who is trying to find her identity, separate from her religious family and the church that dominates village life in the Welsh valleys during the 1970s. She is struggling to come to terms with changes in her long-term friendships, preparing for her educational future and controlling her burgeoning sexual desire in a community that frowns on that from a strongly religious standpoint. There are also references to domestic violence and indoctrination practices.

This book had so much potential. Potential that I believe was untapped. I was so excited to read a coming-of-age story that featured Welsh mythology... it's not something that I've come across before. Tirzah initially seems like a really interesting character and I liked hearing about things from her point of you. Unfortunately, Tirzah doesn't really grow or change, despite her situation changing in perhaps the most momentous way possible. Her relationship with her extremely religious parents doesn't really alter, either, despite her mother latterly showing her understanding when separated from her husband.

This is a novel about Tirzah's desire to escape, but her ingrained need to conform. When she bonds with Brân, The Prince of Crows (Brân means 'ravens', by the way, not crows), this symbolises her freedom and yet causes her to be trapped even more by her circumstances. The mythical elements of the plot are really underused and don't build to anything different or interesting. In fact, if they were removed and replaced by something more human in nature, the story wouldn't change. This, more than anything else, is why I'm disappointed with this story. However, the writing was engaging and lyrical in places, particularly when describing the Welsh landscape... I would read more by this author to see if the talent they show can be fully realised in future books.

[Rebecca Fung · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really expecting more from this book. It was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. I thought that I would enjoy how it drew on Welsh mythology as I love stories based on myths.

However I was disappointed. The characters were flat and there was barely any storyline. There was an attempt to make the style sort of stream-of-consciousness-y, some may appreciate the style but I did not think the lack of speech marks added anything to the text. It just made it harder to read.

Some may like this style though. It gives an atmosphere to the story that it is not immediate but is kind of surreal and dreamlike.

Without giving too much away, Tirzah is a girl living in a village in a religious community awakening to her sexual feelings and runs into issues because of the way the religion views that aspect of things.

But it seemed a lot of words where not a lot of conflict, decisions, etc happened except for some girl being confused. There was not a lot to make the story memorable because of the language, the setting or a great character or well-described or to provoke my thought about women or religious issues. I felt sorry for Tirzah but only in a very generic way.

[Eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those curious books that you get sometimes, that exist right smack on the boundary between genres or categories: it's neither one thing nor the other, though sometimes it also feels like two things at once. Tirzah is growing up in the isolated Welsh valleys in the 1970s, the daughter of parents who adhere to a Christian sect so strict that I'd recommend any survivor of spiritual abuse avoid this title altogether. She's resilient, and resists the dictates of her elders. There are aspects of her resilience, however, that seem almost like psychotic breaks (and how many young women became either saints or martyrs after reporting similar experiences?): she becomes acutely aware of the natural world, particularly in the form of a mysterious homeless boy called Bran who claims to be the servant of a crow god. When Tirzah becomes pregnant by Bran, it shakes her whole community, and the novel becomes concerned with how Tirzah can be free under these circumstances. Its weaknesses are in the plotting: it simply goes on for too long, focusing on repetitive incidents (Tirzah does some mildly rebellious thing, like go out for a walk; her parents find out; she is shamed; she cries and feels guilty; she gets a second wind of defiance; rinse and repeat). Because of the business with the crow god and wild Bran, there's a flavour of magical realism (there's a Welsh myth involving crows and a giant-king called Bran the Blessed), but that never seems to go anywhere, and the ending's ambivalence about Tirzah's mental state is less richly open to interpretation than frustratingly vague. Davies's description of landscapes and her characterisation of young, restless women (especially Tirzah's mother and her cousin Biddy) are both very good, but the book is too diffuse to have the power it aims for.

[alisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ☆

the strongest element of this novel is its atmosphere. deborah kay davies magically transports you to a rural, religious community in 1970s wales. the characters and their motivations felt real, and tirzah was a great vehicle to explore life and varied experiences in this community. i enjoyed this, especially the coming of age aspects, dotted through with aspects of welsh mythology, but i wish it was more engaging overall. too long and not enough plot to keep it going for 400 or so pages!

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gem of a book. The richness and imagery created a tapestry of a story. Not an awful lot happens and yet the unpredictable storyline made this an unusual page-turner that I totally immersed myself in and thought long about even when I wasn’t reading it. Tirzah is a wonderful, engaging protagonist. I’m not usually one for series, but if there were a sequel to this I’d love to return this delicious world: Davies has done with Welsh lore what Katherine Arden has done with Russian lore.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to come at The Wales Arts Review.

[Pernille · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Gretel · Rating 2 out of 5]

That ending... Truly chilling. I just wish that it didn't take almost 400 pages to get there.

[Annette Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tirzah and the Prince of Crows is a coming of age story set in 1970's Wales. The Tirzah of the title is a teenage girl growing up in a conservative family, who are involved in a fundamentalist style church. As she begins to rebel against her family and their faith, and starts to see how unfairly women in particular are being treated, she finds herself drawn to Bran, an almost feral youth , living in the forest nearby. When she becomes pregnant, it sparks a schism in the church but brings her fracturing family closer together,
A beautifully written , strange and yet compelling book, and one I enjoyed despite its slow pace and meandering style.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.