From the instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of the “eerie and fascinating” (USA TODAY) The Thirteenth Tale comes a “swift and entrancing, profound and beautiful” (Madeline Miller, internationally bestselling author of Circe) novel about how we explain the world to ourselves, ourselves to others, and the meaning of our lives in a universe that remains impenetrably mysterious. On a dark … impenetrably mysterious.
On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed.
Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless.
Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son’s secret liaison stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson’s housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone’s. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl’s identity can be known.
Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, this is “a beguiling tale, full of twists and turns like the river at its heart, and just as rich and intriguing” (M.L. Stedman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Light Between Oceans).
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As is everything Setterfield writes, this book is magical mostly because the whimsical aspects of it are so matter-of-factly part of whatever world she builds. No overt world-building, it’s just there, part of the scenery, part of lives, part of everything.
One of the most pleasurable and satisfying new books I’ve read in a long time. Setterfield is a master storyteller…swift and entrancing, profound and beautiful.
I was completely spellbound by this book. Numerous strands of the same story are skillfully woven into a magical web from which I, as a reader, had no desire to escape. Setterfield’s prose is beautiful, dark and eerily atmospheric, and her rich cast of characters convincingly illustrate the best and worst of humanity. Utterly brilliant!
Just like the river in its title, the story meanders from the appearance of a four-year-old girl, apparently drowned but then miraculously alive, and connects to the disappearances of three other children of the same age. The characters are wonderful, each with their own quirks & burdens, described with care & curiosity. There is sorrow, joy, love & loss, all tied neatly into the package that is a perfectly told mystery. I took the journey slowly, allowing myself just a chapter a night to savour the tale, do the same & you won’t regret it. A work of absolute genius.
This Diane Setterfield at her THE THIRTEENTH TALE best!
On winter solstice night, a badly injured stranger bursts into The Swan pub with a drowned child in his arms. But despite appearances, the child isn’t dead and returns to life.
Over the next year, the silent child affects the lives of so many who live in the villages along the Thames, the river from which she was rescued.
Like the river, the story meanders in and out of the lives of its characters and we hear the stories of those who lay claim to the child.
Set in the nineteenth century, the novel hints at magical realism but then pulls back when the more educated characters give rational explanations for various puzzling incidents. A theme of the novel is the gentle tussle between folklore and science.
The language seems authentic but not so old-fashioned that it’s incomprehensible. There is some wonderfully dry humour and the occasional saucy aside.
I read it in small helpings over a month. This worked well because each chapter is an episode in itself – rather like a Dickens novel – so I didn’t lose track of the plot and enjoyed the time to savour the exquisite writing.
Sublime storytelling.
Flawless writing and lively characters bring this entertaining story of the magic and mystery of the River Thames–and all great rivers–to life.
Storytelling at the Swan is the favorite past time of the crowd and the reason so many men stop by for their drinks.
One night the storytelling became real when a man who had been hurt and a small girl who appeared as if she had drowned fell through the inn’s front door.
Then a miracle happened….the girl came alive again. The townspeople and their storytelling ways had many questions, and some thought the girl was one of their own who had passed.
We follow the characters as they try to interpret what happened as we are treated to Ms. Setterfield’s beautiful, poetic, descriptive style.
And…we can’t forget the character, the Thames River….it is a part of everyone’s lives and what the story line revolves around.
The ending of each character’s story made the statement….”Something is going to happen,” and something definitely did.
ONCE UPON A RIVER beautifully and slowly unfolded as the mystery of the little girl was revealed and as we learn about the lives of the characters.
If you enjoy a Gothic theme, and a story line with intriguing as well as odd characters, ONCE UPON A RIVER should be a book you will enjoy.
I do have to say it was a bit long, but Ms. Setterfield’s marvelous storytelling skills make you want it to go on even longer especially once the mystery is revealed and you find out more about the characters. 4/5
This book was given to me free of charge by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
/ 5 rounded up.
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield was such an amazing book that I never wanted it to end! But since it had to end and it has, lets review it…
What it’s about: It is a winter night at The Swan at Radcot, an inn sitting on the bank of the Thames, and storytelling is in full swing. They always tell stories there, especially the owner Margot’s husband Joe who happens to be the best storyteller of them all. On this night, storytelling is abruptly interrupted when a man walks in with the corpse of a little girl and promptly falls over unconscious. The little girl seems to be dead, but a few hours later she is definitely alive. As everyone wonders how this could be, 3 possible parents come forward thinking the girl is theirs. Thus begins the story of who she belongs with and what will happen next.
I LOVED THIS BOOK! It is highly atmospheric and although it may be considered overly descriptive by some, I was so caught up in the story that I was totally into it. There is a very magical quality to this novel, and it reads a bit like you are reading a fairy tale which I personally loved. The imagery of the writing really brought the book alive for me and it was a very enjoyable experience.
There are a lot of characters to remember in Once Upon a River, and it reminded me a little bit of The Clockmaker’s Daughter in both the bounty of characters and atmospheric style in which it is written. Lots of detail, lots of characters, but also lots of fun to read (at least for me).
I don’t think the pacing is overly fast or anything, and this is one of those books you want to savor instead of speeding through. For a lot of people, this is also a book you will find best read with no distractions. Every time I picked up Once Upon a River I was transported to another world and the magic of the Thames. It also made me really want to visit The Swan which is an actual place! This is a book that contains folklore and some historical fiction, so if you are into one or both of those things I think it is definitely worth checking out.
Final Thought: If you love books that are richly atmospheric and read like a fairy tale then I highly recommend reading Once Upon a River. This book made me an instant fan of Setterfield whom I have never read a book from before. The mystery was great, and I didn’t know what was going to happen until I got to the end. There are some sad parts, and some tough subjects, but also lots of joy and humor. This book is pure magic and I hope you decide to pick it up!
I LOVED this story! The way the author used her words to describe the environment, the characters’ emotions, the atmosphere, the background of the characters, it just really helped me imagine and see the story in my head as I read. The story of a drowned girl who has regained consciousness and with two families trying to claim her as their own makes this story hauntingly beautiful and suspenseful with a touch of fairytale. While there are different things going on with each character, the author pulls it all together int he end that leaves me feeling satisfied. I also LOVE the cover! It’s what got my attention in the first place and then the excerpt. I thank the author and Bookish for giving me an ARC of this great story.
I listened to the marvelous audiobook narrated by Juliet Stevenson, and was captivated the entire time. The River Thames is a character in and of itself, as it draws the community around it in legend and story. Superbly written.
I enjoyed so much about this book, but for some reason, it took me forever to finish it. I don’t know what it was exactly that made this book hard to pick up and keep in hand for longer than a couple chapters. Maybe it’s that it read so much like a collection of fairy tales spun into a novel that it felt necessary to take it in in small story-sized bits. Or maybe it’s that the novel, at first so ethereal and wonderful and lovely, got fairly sad and maybe a bit darker than I was thinking – though always told with fairy tale whimsy. Or perhaps it’s because I figured out who the mystery girl was right at the beginning, and it was annoying no one else in the book seemed to know. In any case, this was still a beautiful and unique book, and I loved getting lost along the banks of the river.
What a great story! Not many books draw my attention and spellbound me from the first to the last page. Diane Setterfield’s prose is MAGICAL, ATMOSPHERIC, and reminiscent of Poe, Grimm, Dickens, Bronte, and other greats. This story is LITERARY FICTION at its finest, woven with HISTORICAL FACTS. What I loved most about the novel are layers of stories revolving around a single body of water as ancient as time, the river THAMES. On the banks of the Thames at Radcot, deep-rooted FOLKTALES, much as the river itself, twine deep connections in townspeople’s lives as they try to make sense of recent tragedies.
All small towns have a favorite watering hole and the old inn called SWAN is such a place where people gather for drinks, the comfort of others, and to tell a few stories. Swan’s visitors are known for their STORYTELLING. Even the inn’s owner and her family have quite a few tales to tell. But are the stories about strange occurrences on the river folklore or rivulets of truth? The FERRYMAN, a seaman who appears on the Thame at the hour of victims distress to rescue or ferry their souls to another world, is a popular myth propagated by locals. Imaginative storytelling takes place at the Swan, but none like the story about to unfold.
In the dead of a midwinter night, a severely wounded man stumbles into Swan with a supposedly dead girl in his arms. Moments later, she miraculously awakens from the dead. Like wildfire, news of the girl spreads across the village. Who is she? Ah! Does anyone truly know? Three families have recently lost a daughter or sister, and believe the young girl is theirs. AMELIA, ALICE, ANN… which one is she? No one seems certain. But how can they not be? Are resemblances that fine between the girl and the missing three? Through desperate eyes, each family claims the girl is their missing.
My favorite characters are Rita (the town’s nurse) and Daunt (a local photographer). Daunt’s character is loosely based on an 18th-century photographer, HENRY TAINT. Ms. Setterfield delves into Mr. Taint’s WET COLLODION PHOTOGRAPHY within the story. Impeded by personal misgivings, Daunt and Rita’s relationship ebb and flow, sometimes passionately. They are the objective eyes of three families affected by the mysterious girl’s appearance, a saga which inspires Daunt and Rita’s desires.
Once Upon a River is CAPTIVATING, MAGICAL, HEARTRENDING, ROMANTIC, a PAGE-TURNER with folklore, fact, and fiction. I highly recommend Mrs. Setterfield’s novel, one of my best 2019 reads.
“A river no more begins at its source than a story begins with the first page.” So begins this tale set along the Thames River and its tributaries, starting at the Swan inn at Radcot, famous for its storytelling. It’s solstice night, the longest night of the year, “a time of magic. And as the borders between night and day stretch to their thinnest, so too do the borders between worlds. Dreams and stories merge with lived experience, the dead and the living brush against each other in their comings and goings, the past and the present touch and overlap. Unexpected things can happen.” A stranger stumbles into the inn, carrying a little girl who, for all intents and purposes, is dead. “A body always tells a story – but this child’s corpse was a blank page.” Then she shows signs of life. “Is it a miracle?” It is “as if they had told a tale of a fairy princess and finished it only to find her sitting in a corner of the room listening.”
The girl is later claimed by no less than three different families:
Bess and Robert Armstrong, farmers from Kelmscott, believe she is their grandchild Alice, the daughter of their son Robin.
At Buscot, Helena and Anthony Vaughan mourn the disappearance of her daughter Amelia two years earlier. Can this be her?
And Lily White, the parson’s housekeeper, claims the child is her sister Ann, who died many years ago. How can this be so?
But they’re not the only ones who want her. Innkeeper Margot, who already has thirteen children, wants to keep her. Henry Daunt, the photographer who rescues the girl, feels she is the daughter he wishes he’d had from his failed marriage. Even Rita Sunday, the nurse who never wanted to have a child, wishes she were hers. And then there’s Mr. Quietly, the ghostly ferryman whose daughter drowned in the river. The girl herself does not speak and seems perfectly content with whoever takes her. But she has an endless fascination with the river. Who is she really?
The narrator speaks to us directly, involving us in the narrative:
“That photograph, do you remember?”
“And now, dear reader, the story is over.”
The main story detours into rich backstories which we think are irrelevant but which all tie together masterfully. We are introduced to an array of characters whose stories are woven into the original narrative via the river, as these scenes take place along tributaries of the Thames. The ever-present river is anthropomorphized and becomes a character in its own right:
“The water, bright and cold and fast-running, hissed as it passed. At irregular intervals it spat …”
“… in the background, the breath of the river, an endless exhalation.”
“… she gazed into the darkness and listened to the sound of the river as it rushed by.”
The book contains great descriptive passages:
“By night (and this story begins at night) the bridge was drowned black, and it was only when your ears noticed the low and borderless sound of great quantities of moving water that you could make out the stretch of liquid blackness that flowed outside the window, shifting and undulating, darkly illuminated by some energy of its own making.”
“Outside, the cold sliced through her coat without resistance and sharpened its blade against her skin, but she scarcely noticed.”
The author’s simple, yet powerful prose allows us to see things in a whole new light:
“Rita Sunday was not afraid of corpses. She was used to them from childhood, had even been born from one.”
“Drowning is easy. Every year the river helps herself to a few lives.”
“They were collectors of words, […] They kept an ear constantly alert for them, the rare, the unusual, the unique.”
“She walked through the warm steam of her own exhalation, felt it lay itself as wetness on her face.”
“His head was alive with ideas and he walked rapidly to deposit them with the person who would surely want to know all about it.”
“When they had married, Robin was already on the way, put into her womb by another man.”
“… his words reached their target and hurt as his fists could never have done …”
She uses imaginative similes; for example, when describing how stories change in the re-telling: “It was like a living thing that he had caught but not trained; now it had slipped the leash and was anybody’s.”
And watery metaphors:
“It had seemed then that her daughter’s absence had flooded Helena, flooded them both, and that with their words they were trying to bail themselves out. But the words were eggcups and what they were describing was an ocean of absence, too vast to be contained in such modest vessels.”
“The throng thickened to stagnation and he was obliged to stop altogether, then he found a sluggish current and inched forward again.”
And her description of the river’s path to the ocean, including a poetic description of the water cycle, is a pure genius:
“… the river water clings to the leaves of the willows that droop to touch its surface, and then when the sun comes up a droplet appears to vanish into the air, where it travels invisibly and might join a cloud, a vast floating lake, until it falls again as rain. This is the unmappable journey of the Thames.”
Just like the storytellers at the Swan, the author’s storytelling is so engaging that I didn’t want to put the book down, and I didn’t want it to end. The author’s first novel, “The Thirteenth Tale”, is one of my favorite books of all time. I’m so glad this one didn’t disappoint.
Warnings: mild sex scene, suicide, violence.
Full blog post (12 May): https://www.booksdirectonline.com/2019/05/once-upon-a-river-by-diane-setterfield.html
Diane Setterfield’s narrative voice is masterful. She barely finishes describing the Swan–an inn on Thames, 1887–when in bursts a stranger, bleeding badly and carrying a dead child. Who is the man? Who is the child, and how can it be that she begins to breathe before the night of her death is over? All these questions and more feed the story-hungry regulars at the Swan…and those of us devouring the book as well. Once Upon a River is as fluid as the Thames itself, with twists and turns and dry spells and floods, and places along the river that are exceedingly dangerous. Spellbinding.
Setterfield’s latest weaves an elegant, dark story about the very nature of stories, featuring a cast of compelling characters who harbor intertwined, long-standing secrets. And no one has more secrets than the young girl at the heart of the tale, who appears to come back to life after drowning. Who is she? Who do others think she is, and to what lengths will they go to claim her?
In “Once Upon a River,” Diana Setterfield produces a tale as ambling as the waters from which its name derives. Like waves eating away at the soil, the stories within stories that Setterfield has mastered slowly emerge. A drowned child recovers. A photographer develops more than photographs. A land-owner searches for a missing son and a prized pig. A little boy finds his voice. A kidnapping plot, a gathering place called the Swan, and an eventful Winter Solstice, all set in the 1880’s and told with a lyricism akin to a marvelous fairy tale.
This story is peopled with a large cast that would make Charles Dickens proud. Inn-going common folk with their love for a good yarn could never indulge a lie. It is easy to blame river gypsies for any ill. A nurse and a photographer embrace an emerging understanding of science. A grieving family finds new hope and rekindles a romance. My favorite character was Mr. Armstrong, with his unfailing compassion. His is the type of personality that provides a role model for decorum.
At its heart, this book declares a profound love for the art of storytelling. There are mysteries to be solved while other tales unfold with quiet assurity, all written with a dream-like beauty.
“…and now, dear reader, the story is over. It is time for you to cross the bridge once more and return to the world you came from. This river, which is and is not the Thames, must continue to flow without you.”
Diane Setterfield has long been one of my favorite authors and her new novel does not disappoint. ONCE UPON A RIVER was everything I hoped it would be. Magical and mysterious and full of mayhem. Beautifully written (it seemed like I underlined every other sentence) and emotionally resonant (I cried several times). It is the story of three missing girls and three desperate families, set against the Thames, and just as meandering and wondrous as the river itself. One of its main characters–Robert Armstrong–has become one of my top three fictional men of all time. Once again Diane Setterfield has delivered a true reading experience. Simply put, it is a joy to read.
Great characters, a twisty plot that tugs on the heartstrings, and some beautiful, thoughtful writing on the nature of stories: this book is a pleasure to read. Delightful historical fiction. I loved it.
Wonderful in every respect.