I’m delighted today to share my review of the new short novel from Louise Walters, The Hermit, officially published today via her imprint of Louise Walters Books. The e-copy I read was my own, purchased via Louise’s website bookshop – you might like to obtain your copy in the same way – but it’s available from today on all major e-book platforms and in paperback (signed – and dedicated if required – if purchased via the website).
It’s almost five years since Louise’s last novel – The Road to California entirely captured my heart and, having been an early reader, Louise did me the immense honour of placing a quote from my review on its front cover (you can read my review again here). In the intervening years, Louise has certainly maintained a strong connection with my reading list – although my tastes these days have tended to move away from the literary, it’s been a continuing joy to read the wonderful books by the seven other talented authors that she’s discovered and published via her independent imprint, Louise Walters Books. They haven’t been the easiest of years, and the future remains uncertain – but you might like to take a look at her current catalogue (although miles away from my usual reading, I’d particularly recommend trying the books of Laura Laakso – you’ll find my reviews if you enter her name in my search bar – and there’s a new one, Wildest Hunger, due out in November, and that I’m particularly looking forward to). But in addition to Louise’s efforts for others, she’s a very fine author in her own right – and I was rather thrilled that she decided to allow us the opportunity to enjoy her writing once more.
“I love her more than life and I failed her. I won’t fail her again.”
Could you rekindle a relationship with the mother you left behind over thirty years ago?
Sylvia, struggling through the aftermath of a doomed love affair, is not getting along with her teenage daughter, Antonia, who has always wanted to meet her never-seen grandmother. After years of resistance, and in her desperation to be close to Antonia again, Sylvia, taking her daughter with her, returns to the forgotten Devon estate where she grew up, and to the mother who once hurt her so badly.
To Sylvia’s surprise, the estate’s much-fabled hermit Old Theo is still alive. He is mute and mysterious, and Sylvia was discouraged from approaching him as a child. But now she is not a child, and she wants answers. When Sylvia finally approaches Theo, he finally talks, and reveals more than Sylvia ever imagined.
Just sometimes, 33,000 words can be enough – the words carefully chosen and placed, the scene set, the characters introduced, the emotional complexities explored, the story completed. This is a book about love – but certainly not the romance I usually read. Is it literary fiction? Yes, I guess it is – but not to the degree that should put anyone off reading, as it’s a story that entirely consumed me from beginning to end, read in a single sitting.
A terrace of three cottages on a Devon estate. One of them the house where Sylvia grew up, and where her mother still lives – with an artist lodger – while managing the other two cottages as holiday lets. The second is where Sylvia and her teenage daughter Antonia have decided to stay – although long estranged, Sylvia has reluctantly agreed to cede to her daughter’s wish to get to know her grandmother. The third is let to strangers – two men and a woman, whose relationship is a source of interest and intrigue. And in the woods behind, in a hut, lives Theo, a hermit – as he did throughout Sylvia’s childhood.
The story unfolds over six days – a structure that works particularly well, as the residents in the cottages interact, sometimes behave badly, and their stories slowly emerge – with the perspective and point of view gently shifting, but never in a way that makes the reading difficult. The characterisation is particularly strong, helped by the insights that approach provides – and none of them, with the possible exception of Theo, is particularly likeable or sympathetic. And underpinning the present day dance of the flawed characters, another story slowly emerges – one of past lives and deeply held secrets, devastating in its emotional impact.
This is an extraordinary and original piece of work – emotionally engaging, its story quite wonderfully told, its impact stunning. Very highly recommended.
About the author
Louise Walters is the author of four novels – Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase (Hodder 2014), A Life Between Us (Louise Walters Books 2017), The Road to California (Louise Walters Books 2018), and The Hermit (Louise Walters Books 2022). She’s a writer, a freelance editor, and a one-woman indie publisher, running her press from her home in Northamptonshire.
