Charlotte Kersten

So What’s It About?

Sorrow and trouble and bitterness will bound you and yours and the children of yours…

Some said the dying words of Nial Lynn, murdered by his own son, were a wicked curse. To others, it was a winter’s tale spun by firelight on cold, dark nights. But when Corbet Lynn came to rebuild his family estate, memories of his grandfather’s curse were rekindled by young and old – and rumours filled the heavy air of summer.

In the woods that border Lynn Hall, free-spirited Rois Melior roams wild and barefooted in search of healing herbs. She is as hopelessly unbridled – and unsuited for marriage – as her betrothed sister Laurel is domestic. In Corbet’s pale green eyes, Rois senses a desperate longing. In her restless dreams, mixed with the heady warmth of harvest wine, she hears him beckon. And as autumn gold fades, Rois is consumed with Corbet Lynn, obsessed with his secret past – until, across the frozed countryside and in flight from her own imagination, truth and dreams become inseparable…

What I Thought

I’m rapidly running out of Patricia McKillip books to read so I’ve been carefully rationing them out. I decided it’d been long enough since my last read, so I’m using this for my Published in the 90’s bingo square. As ever: exquisite, numinous, achingly beautiful writing and a story of strange, transformative magic.

One of the things I love about McKillip’s books is that they are utterly ethereal while feeling very grounded in humanness at the same time. Winter Rose’s story makes my heart hurt because of the gentleness and wisdom and light touch with which it explores generational trauma. A silent boy sits beside a neighbor’s fire, watching her normal, happy children play. He doesn’t know how to join himself and is soon taken back to his own cruel home; the boy becomes a father himself and hides away from the world he never fit into, trying to love his son as much as he knows how to and then dying to protect him.

Corbet strives painfully to break his family’s patterns and understand the human world, while the connection between him and Rois feels very special and real despite how delicate and unspoken much of it is. His vulnerability is beautiful, as is her fierce determination to understand and save him. I don’t recall feeling strongly about most of McKillip’s other romances, but the bond here is lovely. I think it’s strengthened by Rois’s first-person perspective, especially her wry observations, sense of strangeness/alienation, and passion for the natural world.

Perhaps my only quibble is that the plot involves many incidents of Rois running out into the forest, passing out, and then stumbling home later. Other than that, I’m only disappointed that I have one less book to read by one of my favorite authors. I wish she was better known because she excels at so many things I see more acclaimed authors do much less successfully (imo) – she really has set my expectations for gorgeous prose and stories that are dreamy little gems reminiscent of the best fairy tales.