What do you think?
Rate this book
At the Edge of the Woods
With assurance and remarkable dexterity, Kathryn Bromwich’s masterful debut novel is a rich, gorgeously descriptive account of a woman hiding from old ghosts and new in the Italian Alps, while rekindling her own sense of self through nature.
Laura lives alone in a cabin deep within the forest, making her living translating medical documents and tutoring the children of affluent locals. She spends her days climbing the mountains outside her door and roaming the woods, and soon begins a relationship with a waiter some years her junior, which brings new rhythms to her life. But late one night there is a knock on the door, and on the other side stands someone from her past who has finally found her.
As the mystery surrounding why she is there comes into focus, Laura is plagued by a fever, and starts to experience flashbacks to her youth, along with an eerie second sight that seems to lift the veil on reality while making astonishing new connections with the natural world around her. In beguiling, lyrical prose we begin to see how Laura’s past informs her present and is a shackle she is desperately trying to shed. Before long though the villagers grow wary of the woman in the cabin and of her increasingly odd behavior, and a few decide to take matters into their own hands; to free themselves from the malevolent forces of the strega who lives amongst them.
At the Edge of the Woods is an evocative and unsettling story that grapples with themes of illness, infertility, and femininity to ask questions about how women have had to navigate or attempted to escape societal expectations both historically and today. Kathryn Bromwich is a spectacular, singular talent, and At the Edge of the Woods is a haunting, magnificent, spellbinding debut with the weight of an instant classic.
Laura lives alone in a cabin deep within the forest, making her living translating medical documents and tutoring the children of affluent locals. She spends her days climbing the mountains outside her door and roaming the woods, and soon begins a relationship with a waiter some years her junior, which brings new rhythms to her life. But late one night there is a knock on the door, and on the other side stands someone from her past who has finally found her.
As the mystery surrounding why she is there comes into focus, Laura is plagued by a fever, and starts to experience flashbacks to her youth, along with an eerie second sight that seems to lift the veil on reality while making astonishing new connections with the natural world around her. In beguiling, lyrical prose we begin to see how Laura’s past informs her present and is a shackle she is desperately trying to shed. Before long though the villagers grow wary of the woman in the cabin and of her increasingly odd behavior, and a few decide to take matters into their own hands; to free themselves from the malevolent forces of the strega who lives amongst them.
At the Edge of the Woods is an evocative and unsettling story that grapples with themes of illness, infertility, and femininity to ask questions about how women have had to navigate or attempted to escape societal expectations both historically and today. Kathryn Bromwich is a spectacular, singular talent, and At the Edge of the Woods is a haunting, magnificent, spellbinding debut with the weight of an instant classic.
220 pages, Hardcover
First published June 6, 2023
20 people are currently reading
1620 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews
July 6, 2023
Hmm. Inconsistent. Some strong writing about the natural world, but way too much of it—to the point of overkill. Poor characterization in general: the secondary characters are flat—mere devices to move along a very limited plot, and the “transformation” of the main character, Laura, from shunned wife to mystic who communes with nature does not convince. (She has fled an abusive marriage to a Frenchman and is living in a cabin in the forest near an Italian mountain village.) Sometimes she seems mad. Other times I wondered if she had temporal lobe epilepsy. When she visits the village for the final time, she just seems dotty and deluded. The villagers (predictably) think she’s a witch. I had no idea when any of this was supposed to be occurring. Post WWII? The Victorian era?—lots of laudanum! The goal seems to have been to produce a visionary/literary novel of great depth and beauty. It’s my perception that the goal was not achieved.
Overall, I lack the enthusiasm to say any more about it.
Rating: 2.5
Overall, I lack the enthusiasm to say any more about it.
Rating: 2.5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
September 8, 2023In its descriptions of nature, the prose of this short novel felt mannered to me—at least until the end when it felt appropriately freer. Considering the book’s themes, it’s perhaps ironic that I most enjoyed the few times the narrator interacts with other people, including the flashback that shows how she came to be “at the edge.”
I thought of Daphne du Maurier’s My Cousin Rachel only in that the time period is ambiguous, perhaps reflecting the anxiety both authors felt about women’s place in not only the worlds they created but in their own. But—thanks to the reading gods (as Fionnuala would say)—it’s a different author that gave me an entry into Bromwich’s story: William Blake.
Before starting this book, I was (and still am) reading John Higgs’s William Blake vs. the World. And before reading a certain section of this novel, I’d read Higgs’s extract from Blake’s poem with its first line, "With Happiness Stretched across the Hills," which includes this: For double the vision my eyes do see/ And a double vision is always with me. Along with other 'explanations' of Blake’s vision, Higgs says: “To see the world with single vision was, for Blake, to be robbed of everything that mattered in life.”
I then picked up the novel and read this, after Laura, the narrator, has spent a night in the forest, away from her cabin: “I have become possessed of a double vision.” I thrilled at the synchronicity. Later, Laura says her “double vision” is “a subtle extension of the real,” which I think also fits with Blake.
Earlier in his book Higgs wrote that cognitive scientists have theorized that those who have visions like Blake’s have less of a “sense of self.” So, I wasn’t too surprised when Laura goes on to say her “sense of self falls away and I am aware of something vast inside me, and outside, and all of a sudden I know things, things that cannot be put into words.” Though Blake is not mentioned anywhere in Bromwich’s text, he became a way for me to see this book.
Just for fun…the Blake poem ends:
Apparently, no can outdo Blake with the way he sees things.
I thought of Daphne du Maurier’s My Cousin Rachel only in that the time period is ambiguous, perhaps reflecting the anxiety both authors felt about women’s place in not only the worlds they created but in their own. But—thanks to the reading gods (as Fionnuala would say)—it’s a different author that gave me an entry into Bromwich’s story: William Blake.
Before starting this book, I was (and still am) reading John Higgs’s William Blake vs. the World. And before reading a certain section of this novel, I’d read Higgs’s extract from Blake’s poem with its first line, "With Happiness Stretched across the Hills," which includes this: For double the vision my eyes do see/ And a double vision is always with me. Along with other 'explanations' of Blake’s vision, Higgs says: “To see the world with single vision was, for Blake, to be robbed of everything that mattered in life.”
I then picked up the novel and read this, after Laura, the narrator, has spent a night in the forest, away from her cabin: “I have become possessed of a double vision.” I thrilled at the synchronicity. Later, Laura says her “double vision” is “a subtle extension of the real,” which I think also fits with Blake.
Earlier in his book Higgs wrote that cognitive scientists have theorized that those who have visions like Blake’s have less of a “sense of self.” So, I wasn’t too surprised when Laura goes on to say her “sense of self falls away and I am aware of something vast inside me, and outside, and all of a sudden I know things, things that cannot be put into words.” Though Blake is not mentioned anywhere in Bromwich’s text, he became a way for me to see this book.
Just for fun…the Blake poem ends:
Now I a fourfold vision see,
And a fourfold vision is given to me;
'Tis fourfold in my supreme delight
And threefold in soft Beulah's night
And twofold Always. May God us keep
From Single vision & Newton's sleep!
Apparently, no can outdo Blake with the way he sees things.
June 29, 2024
Short book. I was totally immersed in the natural environment of rural Italy with the beautiful description of flora and fauna. In particular I found the writing had a strong depiction of light and colour in nature.
In the story we see the consequences of how an abusive relationship can impact on a person and change them into someone wanting to live an isolated life in nature. The secondary vision aspect added an enchanted feel.
In the story we see the consequences of how an abusive relationship can impact on a person and change them into someone wanting to live an isolated life in nature. The secondary vision aspect added an enchanted feel.
May 12, 2023
Best of the year, so far, for me. First half The Dry Heart, second half We Have Always Lived in the Castle? Is that anything? Idk but this was great.
July 1, 2023
I’ve always been interested in stories of people who withdraw from society, so this debut novel was right up my alley. It was very different from what I expected it to be though. It was strange, confusing, wild and mad (especially nearing the end). Yet at the same time also very intriguing and poetic, with gorgeous descriptions of nature. I’m curious to see what Bromwich will come up with next.
Thank you Two Dollar Radio and Edelweiss for an ARC.
Thank you Two Dollar Radio and Edelweiss for an ARC.
Read
August 17, 2023I'm going to leave this unrated, and point people instead to three other books I think should be read that are written much in the same vein as this one and had more resonance for me:
In Wilderness by Diane Thomas
The Word for Woman is Wilderness by Abi Andrews
The Outlander by Gil Adamson
Having said that, Bromwich is very talented and I will look for her next book!
In Wilderness by Diane Thomas
The Word for Woman is Wilderness by Abi Andrews
The Outlander by Gil Adamson
Having said that, Bromwich is very talented and I will look for her next book!
June 8, 2023
2.5 stars. This one really wasn't for me. It had a ton of elements I should have loved, but I didn't find myself connected to Laura at all, which is an important component for me in the fiction genre. I found her descent into memories and visions uninteresting at best and confusing at worst, with a surreal kind of ending that left many questions. To be fair, I think that was the point of the ending, but it just didn't hit the mark for me. I seem to be in the minority in my opinion of this book though, so I recommend it as a pretty quick read if you're looking for a bit of bizarre fiction!
Thank you to Kathryn Bromwich, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley for my advance audio copy.
Thank you to Kathryn Bromwich, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley for my advance audio copy.
June 10, 2025
این کتاب پر از توصیفات قشنگ از جنگل و طبیعته
خوندنش جون میده برای یه عصر cozy زیر پتو با چایی و نور شمع
تصورم ازش موقع خرید هم همین بود
ولی یه چیزی کم داشت
فضای دارکش اجازه نمیداد بیشتر از ۵۰ صفحه در روز بخونمش
اما پایانش رضایت بخش بود.
قشنگ slice of life بود.ولی اون قسمتی از زندگی شخصیت اصلی که به خودآگاهی و جهان آگاهی میرسه.
خوندنش جون میده برای یه عصر cozy زیر پتو با چایی و نور شمع
تصورم ازش موقع خرید هم همین بود
ولی یه چیزی کم داشت
فضای دارکش اجازه نمیداد بیشتر از ۵۰ صفحه در روز بخونمش
اما پایانش رضایت بخش بود.
قشنگ slice of life بود.ولی اون قسمتی از زندگی شخصیت اصلی که به خودآگاهی و جهان آگاهی میرسه.
Read
June 28, 2023I love my unreliable female narrators who keep drawers full of occult texts and irk the market owner with excessive red wine consumption. Descent into madness? Who's to say, really. This was a tense and quick read that (if I do say so myself) captures the exact frenetic and possibly religious energy of living in a cabin alone with your spooky books and ghostly friends. I'm absolutely going to read more titles from this press!
October 18, 2023
Pleasantly strange. That would be summing up.
For the first fifty pages we know little more than that a woman lives alone in the wilds of the Italian Alps in a rundown hut. Bromwich’s writing has already entranced thought.
She hikes the surrounding mountains everyday, hiding from something. In the forest, in the part of her protagonist, Bromwich explores perceptions, basic sustenance, survival, and complete escape into the natural world, all done in the simple language.
There’s a degree of unreliability about the narration, though after a while the reader goes with the flow, there seems no point in doubting her.
There’s a pleasing degree of experimentation here also, not just in terms of the plot, but in her characters as well. There’s a backdrop of folklore, but any genre one might attach to it jumps into another pretty quickly.
Based on this excellent novel, Bromwich, a contributor to The Observer on ‘all aspects of culture’, is an author to watch. She may well have discovered what she does best.
And, what better than an ending that totally wrong-foots the reader.. it’s a wonderfully unhinged finale, the ultimate dagger into trials of womanhood, and the woman the narrator once was.
For the first fifty pages we know little more than that a woman lives alone in the wilds of the Italian Alps in a rundown hut. Bromwich’s writing has already entranced thought.
She hikes the surrounding mountains everyday, hiding from something. In the forest, in the part of her protagonist, Bromwich explores perceptions, basic sustenance, survival, and complete escape into the natural world, all done in the simple language.
There’s a degree of unreliability about the narration, though after a while the reader goes with the flow, there seems no point in doubting her.
There’s a pleasing degree of experimentation here also, not just in terms of the plot, but in her characters as well. There’s a backdrop of folklore, but any genre one might attach to it jumps into another pretty quickly.
Based on this excellent novel, Bromwich, a contributor to The Observer on ‘all aspects of culture’, is an author to watch. She may well have discovered what she does best.
And, what better than an ending that totally wrong-foots the reader.. it’s a wonderfully unhinged finale, the ultimate dagger into trials of womanhood, and the woman the narrator once was.
August 11, 2023
Is this a novel about a (possibly) mad woman who leaves her world behind to live alone in the dark woods of the Italian Alps? ... Or is this my future memoir?
Beautiful prose, foreboding, and compelling.
Beautiful prose, foreboding, and compelling.
November 6, 2023
This book feels like three different novels combined into one.
I enjoyed the first story the most, where we learn about a self-possessed woman making a life in a small town living in a cabin by herself in the Italian Alps. The second story is a flashback to the life she left behind, which gives us the central conflict. The last story is a collision of her isolation and an increasingly suspicious society. While each of these stories is interesting, I felt the main character/narrator was inconsistent throughout, hence the disjointed feeling.
One thing remains constant, the main character’s love of nature. The descriptions of nature are beautiful bordering on baroque.
There are underlying themes of the maiden, mother, crone archetypes. Much of the book places this woman at odds with these roles. The result is that she is seen as unrefined, then a failure and finally a threat. I just wish there had been more cackling crone.
I enjoyed the first story the most, where we learn about a self-possessed woman making a life in a small town living in a cabin by herself in the Italian Alps. The second story is a flashback to the life she left behind, which gives us the central conflict. The last story is a collision of her isolation and an increasingly suspicious society. While each of these stories is interesting, I felt the main character/narrator was inconsistent throughout, hence the disjointed feeling.
One thing remains constant, the main character’s love of nature. The descriptions of nature are beautiful bordering on baroque.
There are underlying themes of the maiden, mother, crone archetypes. Much of the book places this woman at odds with these roles. The result is that she is seen as unrefined, then a failure and finally a threat. I just wish there had been more cackling crone.
July 3, 2023
This is a tricky book to rate because the book itself is so unusual.
Without giving spoilers, this is a book about a woman who lives alone in a rustic cabin in the woods at the edge of a small, northern Italian village. We do come to learn why she is here and what she left behind.
This is not a plot driven, page-turner as we spend much of the novel inside the main character’s head as she describes the nature around her cabin and we learn how she changes as the novel progresses. This is a deceptively short novel because it’s not a quick read (this is not a negative). The author writes long sentences with lots of descriptions.
Reading this essay by the author after finishing the novel was fascinating https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...
Without giving spoilers, this is a book about a woman who lives alone in a rustic cabin in the woods at the edge of a small, northern Italian village. We do come to learn why she is here and what she left behind.
This is not a plot driven, page-turner as we spend much of the novel inside the main character’s head as she describes the nature around her cabin and we learn how she changes as the novel progresses. This is a deceptively short novel because it’s not a quick read (this is not a negative). The author writes long sentences with lots of descriptions.
Reading this essay by the author after finishing the novel was fascinating https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...
June 7, 2023
“Beyond a certain point, when sympathy has fallen away, pain becomes distasteful to others, as if by venturing too close they might be caught in a vortex they will not be able to escape. It is catching, more deadly than any virus—it saps your humanity, little by little, until they no longer recognize you as one of their own. Day after day you become more transparent, until your materiality has trickled away and left behind a hazy and insubstantial outline, as though you were made of glass. But you do not stop feeling—that is the cruel trick—you are still there, as full of life and emotion as you ever were, waiting for them to see you.”
At the Edge of the Woods is a haunting and surreal novel that follows Laura, a woman living in an isolated cabin in the Italian Alps. Told in five parts, the story delves into Laura’s mysterious past to show us what led her on this journey of healing through nature and solitude. Laura reluctantly relies on the closest town for income, food, and pleasure but the townspeople find her reticence about her personal life suspicious. As it turns out, people can be just as wild and territorial as the animals of the forest.
This was an extraordinary, deeply enriching reading experience. Bromwich’s writing is lush and so incredibly detailed, the woodsy atmosphere was almost tangible. There is a sinister air throughout the story that kept me on my toes and I could not put the book down. Laura is a fascinating narrator who challenges the conventional ideas of womanhood and I loved witnessing her disconnect from the world in order to reconnect to her soul. This book explores survival, liberation, and agency while celebrating our profound interconnection to the natural world. I cannot recommend it enough. Thanks so much @twodollarradio for my gifted copy. 🌲
At the Edge of the Woods is a haunting and surreal novel that follows Laura, a woman living in an isolated cabin in the Italian Alps. Told in five parts, the story delves into Laura’s mysterious past to show us what led her on this journey of healing through nature and solitude. Laura reluctantly relies on the closest town for income, food, and pleasure but the townspeople find her reticence about her personal life suspicious. As it turns out, people can be just as wild and territorial as the animals of the forest.
This was an extraordinary, deeply enriching reading experience. Bromwich’s writing is lush and so incredibly detailed, the woodsy atmosphere was almost tangible. There is a sinister air throughout the story that kept me on my toes and I could not put the book down. Laura is a fascinating narrator who challenges the conventional ideas of womanhood and I loved witnessing her disconnect from the world in order to reconnect to her soul. This book explores survival, liberation, and agency while celebrating our profound interconnection to the natural world. I cannot recommend it enough. Thanks so much @twodollarradio for my gifted copy. 🌲
July 22, 2023
Strange and stunning. Beautifully written.
July 28, 2023
Unusual, gorgeous little novel. I used to think I wanted to live alone in the woods... now, maybe not so much. The author's descriptions of nature and the protagonist's descent into madness are beautifully clear. Four stars because the ending was confusing and ambiguous.
July 7, 2023
"I try to focus my eyes onto the pages of a book, but the words enter my mind and sit there, sloshing around in an ebullient cauldron, waiting for me to pick them up before they dissipate into the pot."
An example of Bromwich's delicious writing. A woman returns to Italy after her marriage to a very wealthy and emotionally/mentally abusive Brit. She manages to escape his beautiful mansion and finds a decrepit cabin at the edge of the woods of a small village. She cleans the cabin, has a brief tryst with a secret lover, and is never accepted by the villagers.
In the end, she is aware of her "two realities", the splitting from her healthy mind as she joins the world of the forests. Does the laudanum cause her mental deterioration or does it try to save her from her two realities? Does she find her true self before her abusive marriage? Bromwich has written a beautiful and tragic story that still reverberates within me.
An example of Bromwich's delicious writing. A woman returns to Italy after her marriage to a very wealthy and emotionally/mentally abusive Brit. She manages to escape his beautiful mansion and finds a decrepit cabin at the edge of the woods of a small village. She cleans the cabin, has a brief tryst with a secret lover, and is never accepted by the villagers.
In the end, she is aware of her "two realities", the splitting from her healthy mind as she joins the world of the forests. Does the laudanum cause her mental deterioration or does it try to save her from her two realities? Does she find her true self before her abusive marriage? Bromwich has written a beautiful and tragic story that still reverberates within me.
July 2, 2023
This is a favorite of the year thus far. Gorgeous writing, intricately descriptive, you get transported to Laura's world. She lives alone in a cabin at the edge of the woods in a time when women did no such thing. The villagers grow suspicious of this stranger who lives alone with her books and flowers. Who is she? What's wrong with her? What is she doing here? This is not a plot driven book. Not much happens really. It's more a meditation on nature, loneliness (or lack thereof), and the human propensity for rejecting what's not "normal". I loved every word and savored every chapter. Can't wait to read more by this author.
June 8, 2023
I absolutely loved this debut author's atmospheric writing style.
It's first person POV storyline. Laura seeks solitude out in the remote mountainous area of Alps where she can have a fresh start. Being an outsider in rural village, endures suspicion of townspeople. A person from her past relationship eventually caught up with her.
A well written literary fiction and I highly recommend it.
It's first person POV storyline. Laura seeks solitude out in the remote mountainous area of Alps where she can have a fresh start. Being an outsider in rural village, endures suspicion of townspeople. A person from her past relationship eventually caught up with her.
A well written literary fiction and I highly recommend it.
December 18, 2023
I took my time reading this, enjoying every chapter and relishing the language. This book is paced perfectly, Bromwich doling out just enough information to keep the reader enthralled. This is a timeless story of isolation and the freedom that comes from being alone with one's mind, and I found Laura's journey exhilarating.
June 22, 2023
That beginning quote is so beautiful I was hooked immediately.
I maybe fell in love with the author a little. It was creepy and gorgeous. I want to move away to a cabin, sometimes, but now not so much.
I maybe fell in love with the author a little. It was creepy and gorgeous. I want to move away to a cabin, sometimes, but now not so much.
June 26, 2023
One of those books you just don't want to end. Cannot wait for more from Kathryn Bromwich. The writing was so atmospheric and poetic. I did not want to put this down, but I also was so sad to finish the story.
June 30, 2023
This is a fantastic book. It is beautifully written and is a very impressive debut. Highly recommended!
August 18, 2023
In every corner of civilization lives a fearful man with a gun aimed at the last outcropping of wild things. This is a story of one of those wild things, and I loved it deeply.
August 10, 2023
“I have read, somewhere, that a great deal of suffering might be spared if we were taught to expect nothing from the world in the first place. This had struck me as impossibly bleak at first, but the more I think of it, the wiser the proposition appears. I am done, at last, looking outward for meaning, or knowledge, or acceptance. The more I look into the world, the more I realize I will not find these things there; it is through my own consciousness, flawed and deceitful though it is, that all is refracted. The sky, the clouds, the rivers are creations of my own mind, imperfect and biased approximations of their essential selves. It is my thoughts that give the outward world its qualities, its ability to hurt and delight—I would say in equal measure, but I am not so very sure. Like the spider, or the dreamer, I have weaved my life and now move in it.”
A strange little book from one of my favorite indie publishers! Laura escapes an abusive marriage to take up life in the woods of Italy and beyond the difficulties of living alone in nature as a woman must also contend with the social mores of the village. She searches her surroundings for an undefinable something that she lacks and can’t quite name (or at least name aloud). This is mostly an internal journey, but she consistently finds herself shaped by the views of others. Only when she is able to fully detach does her vision open up (hoo boy, do I mean literally) and allow her to reclaim the parts of herself that she’d either lost or locked up.
On top of all of this, there’s some brilliant nature writing, a fantastic sense of mood and place, and delightful insight into how we allow (or force) ourselves to be shaped by the perceptions of others. It feels like a witchy take on Haushoffer’s “The Wall.”
A strange little book from one of my favorite indie publishers! Laura escapes an abusive marriage to take up life in the woods of Italy and beyond the difficulties of living alone in nature as a woman must also contend with the social mores of the village. She searches her surroundings for an undefinable something that she lacks and can’t quite name (or at least name aloud). This is mostly an internal journey, but she consistently finds herself shaped by the views of others. Only when she is able to fully detach does her vision open up (hoo boy, do I mean literally) and allow her to reclaim the parts of herself that she’d either lost or locked up.
On top of all of this, there’s some brilliant nature writing, a fantastic sense of mood and place, and delightful insight into how we allow (or force) ourselves to be shaped by the perceptions of others. It feels like a witchy take on Haushoffer’s “The Wall.”
October 2, 2023
UGHHH this book might actually be one of my top favorites of the year so far. A woman from
Paris with a troubled past that was created by non other than a man, travels to the Italian Alps to run away. There she is seen as an outsider by the townsfolk and as time goes on, the they rally up to destroy her. This is Kathryn Bromwich's 1st and only book and I really hope is isn't her last. Bromwich's prose is extremely intoxicating. Not overly excessive and flowery and very reminiscent of Italian/European authors I myself have read, her writing style enhances the story and make you feel like you are right there in the book experiencing everything the main character is. How she describes nature and emotions is so refreshing but leaves you in deep thought. I found myself getting lost in mind thinking about why I have had a sudden push to reconnect with nature, how I would do so, and when. Reading this propelled me into the direction of wanting to "be a strega" and to wonder what the correlation between being a women and to be a strega, a witch, is. What patriarchal ideologies determine that correlation and difference. Is it when we reject all formalities that mean to be a women? Is it to be one with nature? To listen and honor the earth but also to use its resources in respect? Is it to reject all things capitalistic, separate yourself from common man and to detach from want and accept need? It is all of the above? I thought of The Houseguest, Days of Abandonment, The Dry Heart and, We Have Always Lived in this Castle while reading so if you have enjoyed any of those books I guarantee you will love this one too. I thoroughly relished every aspect and believed it was the perfect novel to start the spooky October season.
Paris with a troubled past that was created by non other than a man, travels to the Italian Alps to run away. There she is seen as an outsider by the townsfolk and as time goes on, the they rally up to destroy her. This is Kathryn Bromwich's 1st and only book and I really hope is isn't her last. Bromwich's prose is extremely intoxicating. Not overly excessive and flowery and very reminiscent of Italian/European authors I myself have read, her writing style enhances the story and make you feel like you are right there in the book experiencing everything the main character is. How she describes nature and emotions is so refreshing but leaves you in deep thought. I found myself getting lost in mind thinking about why I have had a sudden push to reconnect with nature, how I would do so, and when. Reading this propelled me into the direction of wanting to "be a strega" and to wonder what the correlation between being a women and to be a strega, a witch, is. What patriarchal ideologies determine that correlation and difference. Is it when we reject all formalities that mean to be a women? Is it to be one with nature? To listen and honor the earth but also to use its resources in respect? Is it to reject all things capitalistic, separate yourself from common man and to detach from want and accept need? It is all of the above? I thought of The Houseguest, Days of Abandonment, The Dry Heart and, We Have Always Lived in this Castle while reading so if you have enjoyed any of those books I guarantee you will love this one too. I thoroughly relished every aspect and believed it was the perfect novel to start the spooky October season.
June 11, 2023
What’s again I am writing a review that will be one of the unpopular opinions but I found this book boring at times and confusing adulterous I didn’t understand Laura’s play in the ending just left me bewildered and wanting to know what was that about? A lot of people love this book and so I will not say don’t read it because I honestly believe there is a reader for every book I guess I am just not the reader for this one. Now having said that everyone else loves it and it is an a long book in the beginning I found very interesting but as the story goes on as I said I just got confused, bored and then bewildered. I received this book from NetGalley and Highbridge audio but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review
Read
July 18, 2023Bromwich’s debut does exactly what I love about so many of the books put out by this indie publisher—it shares a unique yet recognizable female voice.
Laura lives an isolated life deep in the woods of the Italian Alps. She welcomes the solitude and there is a calming simplicity to the routines she takes on in this new life. As she builds a relationship with nature, Laura struggles to fit in with the local villagers, who both judge and fear a woman living in such an unconventional way. There are, however, reasons for why she ended up where she is. There always are.
What I drew most from this novel is a rich exploration of the many alternating ways we attempt to grit our teeth and bear it, to escape, to simultaneously find and hide from ourselves. Bromwich’s writing is quietly powerful and I believe it will resonate with any woman who has ever felt trapped, adrift, or desperate for a fresh start. So, perhaps, all of us.
Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.
Laura lives an isolated life deep in the woods of the Italian Alps. She welcomes the solitude and there is a calming simplicity to the routines she takes on in this new life. As she builds a relationship with nature, Laura struggles to fit in with the local villagers, who both judge and fear a woman living in such an unconventional way. There are, however, reasons for why she ended up where she is. There always are.
What I drew most from this novel is a rich exploration of the many alternating ways we attempt to grit our teeth and bear it, to escape, to simultaneously find and hide from ourselves. Bromwich’s writing is quietly powerful and I believe it will resonate with any woman who has ever felt trapped, adrift, or desperate for a fresh start. So, perhaps, all of us.
Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.
February 9, 2024
TLDR: this book is magically written, uses beautiful language to describe our connection to nature and each other, and has you captivated by every word through a seemingly unremarkable plot.
While reading this book, I had the recurring thought that this a true example of a book. The magic of this story would be lost as a movie, or really in any other form.
This story is told from the inside of Laura’s mind. A mind that is swiftly deteriorating. Whether that be from drug abuse, isolation, trauma, societal pressures or some combination is open to interpretation.
Through her hallucinations and real-life interpretations, the descriptive language used to describe her connection to the mountain and it’s plentiful resources is unlike any book I’ve ever read.
I’m surprised by how easily I was drawn into what could be described as a mundane story. The real story is not found in the plot, but rather the narrator’s mind.
Highly recommend.
I look forward to discussing this book with other because there’s a lot of unpack and I think I would benefit from hearing what others took away from this story.
While reading this book, I had the recurring thought that this a true example of a book. The magic of this story would be lost as a movie, or really in any other form.
This story is told from the inside of Laura’s mind. A mind that is swiftly deteriorating. Whether that be from drug abuse, isolation, trauma, societal pressures or some combination is open to interpretation.
Through her hallucinations and real-life interpretations, the descriptive language used to describe her connection to the mountain and it’s plentiful resources is unlike any book I’ve ever read.
I’m surprised by how easily I was drawn into what could be described as a mundane story. The real story is not found in the plot, but rather the narrator’s mind.
Highly recommend.
I look forward to discussing this book with other because there’s a lot of unpack and I think I would benefit from hearing what others took away from this story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews