Reviewed by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett as Book of the Day in The Guardian, and an ‘instant Sunday Times top ten bestseller‘ on Amazon, the basic plot of this novel is the juxtaposition of the two different lives of our heroine Natalie – as modern social media influencer par excellence on the one hand, and virtual prisoner on a devoutly Christian farmstead in 1855, on the other. Modern Natalie was living the dream as a traditional Christian wife – a ‘tradwife’ – but she wasn’t exactly depicting their farmstead life completely honestly. Her followers saw her living a simple country life – but not all the extra help that enabled her to do it.
In my own 1904 house, last Friday saw me condemned to a few days without a working washing machine – handwashing essentials at the kitchen sink in what was originally the scullery/wash-house. I felt as though I was reenacting the drudgery of an earlier age – but still with modern detergents and fabric conditioner.
What does this have to do with someone else’s first novel? Well, my own temporary ‘step back in time’ meant that the fundamental premise of Burke’s first novel certainly resonated with me, and I rushed to order a copy. (After all, I deserved a treat in between wringing wet washing and hanging it out to drip-dry!)
I’m not always enamoured of novels where chapters alternate between different viewpoints or different eras, but it was tightly written, insofar as there weren’t too many characters to hold in mind at any particular time. After a couple of chapters in each era, I was engrossed, wondering how exactly the author was going to resolve the bottom-line question: if Natalie had somehow slipped into a time-warp, then how? And how was she going to get back? And what was going to happen to the family she left behind in 1855?, assuming she would eventually be returned to the present-day for good.
Some characters were less convincing than others. Mary, the oldest girl in 1855, was quite frankly a bit of a bitch, and it surprised me that 1855 Natalie was so submissive towards her own teenage daughter. Moreover, Old Caleb in 1855 was a domestic tyrant, and would have been guilty of rape in modern terms – there was nothing to like about him. By contrast, the modern-day rather feeble and unmotivated Caleb was unexciting rather than unpleasant, but despite being an unsatisfactory and rather disinterested lover, he somehow still fathered a big family. Reviewer Lucy Cosslett highlights other aspects which don’t ring true – I don’t need to reiterate them here.
I’m not going to spoil it for you – the denouement certainly came as a surprise, but it did make sense. I t was darker than I’d expected, but then again, Burke had got Natalie into such a predicament that it’s hard to imagine any happy-ever-after ending that would have been truly satisfactory.
Whether you can label something as a top ten bestseller, one-third of the way though the year, is a moot point, but I certainly found it hard to put down. Currently at a bargain price – you can’t go wrong, really!
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 