Publishers Weekly
★ 01/15/2024
A minister’s conscience is tested in the perceptive and beautiful latest from Davies (The Mission House). In 1847 Scotland, John Fergusen has recently broken from the Church of Scotland as part of a movement to form the Free Church, which aims to be independent from the influence of landowners. It’s also lacking in funds and unable to pay salaries to its leaders. John and his wife Mary are now impoverished, and he contracts with a landowner for £16 to perform an unsavory errand on a remote island. His task, which flies in the face of his purported principles, is to arm himself with a gun and evict the island’s sole remaining tenant, Ivar, so the land can be cleared for sheep. In alternating chapters from the points of view of Ivar, John, and Mary, Davies gradually unfurls the story of John’s calamitous arrival on the island, which involves a near-fatal fall from a cliff; his unexpected friendship with Ivar, who nurses him back to health; and Mary’s concern about John’s safety, which prompts her to board a steamer and come to his rescue. Davies cranks a great deal of tension into the economical plot—as the weeks pass, the reader wonders if John will finally tell Ivar why he’s there, whether the gun will ever go off, and how Mary’s impending arrival will affect the two men. Moreover, each page blooms with wondrous descriptions of the untamed highlands (“Now and then a long smudge of rain in the distance screened the sun, sending its illumination down onto a band of water along the horizon before it burst through again and lit up the pasture”). This is divine. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
"[A] gripping novel from Welsh novelist Carys Davis, Clear...feels a bit like a thriller set against a history lesson rendered fantastically vivid...raising questions of belonging, ownership, and how we forge the bonds between people and place that are really durable."
—Vogue
"[Davies] writes epics in miniature...a tender, humane book."
—Times (London)
"With her characteristically buoyant prose and brisk sense of plotting, Davies crafts a humane tale about individuals struggling to maintain dignity beneath competing systems of disenfranchisement...A deft and graceful yarn about language, love, and rebellion against the inhumane forces of history."
—Kirkus (starred review)
"The sheer beauty of Clear—with its perfect sentences, its austere tenderness, and its quiet sense of disquiet—feels timeless ... A poignant, profound depiction of both solitude and connection. Carys Davies has written a masterful, discreetly sublime book."
—Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Trust and In the Distance
“This intriguing and inventive story escorts the reader to an unexpectedly joyous ending that hints at our contemporary interest in new ideas of what a family might be. The writing style is one of clarity and reserved sensibility punctuated with an end-game needle jab. Not to be missed.”
—Annie Proulx, author of Barkskins
“Clear is a compact, taut and brilliant novel with an ingenious premise: one man is sent to evict another from his land, but suddenly requires the second man’s aid. Everything gets more complicated from there. The book is about belonging, a dying language, secrets, and a pistol in a box. I loved every page.”
—Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land
"Clear is a love letter to a vanished way of life, to a landscape, and to human relationships. Captivating, tender, and satisfying, this is a novel to be savoured."
—Claire Fuller, author of Bitter Orange and The Memory of Animals
"A wonderfully humane and moving depiction of loneliness and the connections forged between strangers that transcend all barriers, even language."
—Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures
"With Clear, Carys Davies has again done brilliantly what she does best - saying most by saying least. She has the rare gift of eloquent brevity — Clear is astute, moving, unexpected."
—Penelope Lively, author of The Family Garden and Life in the Garden
“An exquisite, hopeful masterpiece ... my favorite book of 2024 and probably many more years to come.”
—Rachel Joyce, author of Miss Benson's Beetle and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Selected Praise for Carys Davies
“This short, stunning novel taps into the mythos of the American frontier while offering a vivid tale of devotion and loss.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Davies’s writing is so lovely throughout, her vision so interesting.” —The New York Times
“Luminous... Davies is a writer to watch—and to savor.” —O, The Oprah Magazine
“A lithe yet lyrical meditation on obsession, violence, and the yoke of family...Davies is an audaciously talented writer.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Enthralling... [a] jewel of a novel.” —The Observer
“One of the most haunting and beautifully crafted novels I have read in a long time... This is a gently seductive book, one that entrances right to its cleverly conceived end.” —The Sunday Times
“Davies' lapidary prose is a marvel – she creates worlds in a few deft pen strokes.” —The Times
“Brilliantly crafted...Having subtly prepared the ground, Davies finally springs the jaws of her plot, revealing, heartbreakingly...what kind of story this really is.” —The Daily Mail
“Beautifully crafted.” —The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice
“Lightly yet deftly crafted, hovering in tone somewhere between comedy, tragedy, and fable...Davies subtly synthesizes complex issues into a low-key yet compelling web of affecting destinies.” —Kirkus (starred review)
“I loved this... It’s pretty much perfect.” —Claire Fuller
MAY 2024 - AudioFile
Russ Bain flawlessly presents Carys Davies's novel featuring three extraordinary, believable characters in 1840s Scotland. Listeners meet awkward Reverend John Ferguson and his kindhearted wife, Mary as he sets sail for a remote island to evict Ivar, who's lived there alone for decades. Bain seamlessly blends Davies's three disparate viewpoints and moving descriptions of Ivar's simple way of life. He spins, knits, and chats with his horse. Listeners are relieved as John completes his journey--but then he's seriously injured in a fall. Bain's deep emotional connection with each character is strongest when John questions the ethics of evicting Ivar so the government can use his land to graze "profitable sheep." Audio superbly conveys the stunning conclusion, adding depth to this remarkable story. S.G.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2024-01-20
A minister is sent to evict the last inhabitant of an isolated island in the North Sea.
It’s 1843, and two major upheavals are roiling Scotland. First, the barbaric Clearances, in which landowners replace their “impoverished, unreliable tenants” with profitable occupants like sheep, have finally made their way to Scotland’s austere northern islands. Second, one-third of Scotland’s Presbyterian ministers have revolted against landowner-controlled church appointments—and consequently deprived themselves of any income. Reverend John Ferguson is one of these suddenly impoverished ministers, which is why he agrees to voyage 400 miles into the North Sea to evict a barren island’s sole remaining tenant. Armed with a pistol and a calotype image of his wife, Mary, John is dropped off and told that the boat will return in a month. He’s barely there a day, however, when he falls off a cliff and is rescued by Ivar, the lonely man he’s there to remove. The two men do not share a language, but while Ivar tends John’s wounds and teaches him words like leura (“a period of short, unreliable quiet between storms”), he finds himself increasingly attracted to John…who is too ashamed to admit that he’s come to kick Ivar out of his home. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Mary learns something about this particular clearance that causes her to set off in search of her husband. Will John come to reciprocate Ivar’s more-than-filial feelings? Will Ivar leave peacefully? Will John’s hidden pistol bring the leura to a harsh and sudden end? With her characteristically buoyant prose and brisk sense of plotting, Davies crafts a humane tale about individuals struggling to maintain dignity beneath competing systems of disenfranchisement. But while a lesser author might allow their characters to be terminally lashed by these historical travesties, Davies infuses John, Mary, and Ivar with refreshingly fantastical levels of creativity and grace, which helps them find a startling new way to avert disaster.
A deft and graceful yarn about language, love, and rebellion against the inhumane forces of history.
