Once Upon a River: The spellbinding Sunday Times bestseller
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By Diane Setterfield
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‘A truly extraordinary book’ – Dinah Jefferies
‘I was completely spellbound’ – Ruth Hogan
‘Just marvellous’ – Jo Baker
‘A true storyteller’ – The Times
It was the longest night of the year when the strangest of things happened . . .
On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the Thames, the regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open and in steps an injured stranger. In his arms is the drowned corpse of a child.
Hours later, the dead girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life.
Is it a miracle?
Is it magic?
And who does the little girl belong to?
An exquisitely crafted multi-layered mystery brimming with folklore, suspense and romance, as well as with the urgent scientific curiosity of the Darwinian age, Once Upon a River is as richly atmospheric as Setterfield’s bestseller The Thirteenth Tale.
""Diane’s masterful storytelling draws you in to a beguiling tale, full of twists and turns like the river at its heart, and just as rich and intriguing."" (M L Stedman, bestselling author of The Light Between Oceans)
“Swift and entrancing, profound and beautiful. Give yourself a treat and read it!"" (Madeline Miller, Orange Prize-winning author of The Song of Achilles and Circe)
TweetReviews
Everyone who attended this book club meeting had finished and enjoyed the book. We all felt that this was an easy and quick read (even given it's length) that we could see being made into a movie. But we did feel that the blurb gave it much more of a supernatural slant which we didn't see that strongly in the actual book.
We enjoyed the traditional, almost fairy tale way of story telling. It felt quite natural to read once you got into it. We also felt it was a very heart-warning story. Getting little bits of the story as you go along and finally being able to stitch it all together to figure out what might have happened was very satisfying. Talking about the ending we liked the fact that the author left it a little up to us which ending we preferred.
The descriptions of the people and places in the book were all very clear, you could easily picture it all in your mind while reading. Some characters had us in tears through their stories, you just felt so bonded to them as the story went along. We especially loved the strong women characters through the book, along with Armstrong they all really stood out strongly for us.
Overall we gave this book 8 out of 10.
