Forest

This was a great book! I got it second hand in one of those used book sales where they fill up a shop with used books that are all priced the same, and then as time passes the price goes down. It becomes a bit of a gamble. How long do you dare to wait? I thought I'd just have a quick browse around the shop, not looking for anything in particular, one day when the price was pretty low. They start at 100 kr and then go down to 5 kr over the course of a couple of months before starting over with, I expect, a fresh load of books. I went in while the price was 20 kr, so pretty cheap.

I didn't really see anything that interested me, but I happened across this one in the section of books in English and thought, 'why not?' I've been wanting to read this author for ages. I even tried once many years ago, but got stuck halfway through. I can't even remember for certain which book that was. Sarum, I think. To be honest, I was probably rather too young at the time to really appreciate it. I remember finding the idea of reading the book more attractive than the actual text. But the book has stuck with me and I've always wanted to give the author a second go. And with this one I figured it was cheap enough that if I got stuck it wasn't a big deal at all.

So I bought it.

At first I found it difficult to get into. The prose felt heavy, somehow, and I couldn't read for very long before I just needed a rest. It certainly didn't help either that shortly after starting this book, I received in the mail the newest book from Frances Hardinge, which I'm desperate to crack open. (Subliminal message there! Read Hardinge. She's awesome.) Then, after the first 50-100 pages or so, I think, I got used to the style and the story just caught me. I was so hooked!

This book is really more a collection of short stories rather than a novel. They're all tied together in that they are about the same handful of families and the same area, but all set at different points in history. That way The Forest manages to span a whopping 900 years of history! That's pretty mind-boggling to think about, isn't it?

Of course these families are all fictitious, but there is a whole bunch of real people and real events scattered throughout, so while reading the book I still felt like I was learning something.
I'm very keen to read the other books by Edward Rutherfurd, which I understand follows this same pattern, and explore this genre further in general. (I'll read my new Frances Hardinge first, though.)