Elmet

First, some context, particularly for American readers of Fiona Mozley’s debut novel, ELMET. The book’s somewhat unusual title is taken from the ancient kingdom called Elmet by the Celts, now in west Yorkshire in the north of England. Elmet has been previously commemorated in literature, in Ted Hughes’ poetry collection, REMAINS OF ELMET, which used the primeval landscape as a backdrop for mythic scenes of nature bearing witness to men’s acts of violence.

Mozley picks up on many of these same themes in her own novel, ELMET, and it’s no coincidence that she includes a quote from Hughes’ book as the epigraph to her own. Nature --- particularly the ancient forests that surround her characters --- is a palpable force in ELMET, dwarfed only by the powerful, warped human forces of justice, revenge and violence that lurk in its shadows.

At the center of the novel is a small family: Daniel; his older sister, Cathy; and their father, John. The three of them have made their home deep in the forests of Elmet, ever since leaving their former home at their grandmother’s house along the coast. Their mother --- a nebulous, tragic figure whose troubled history is only ever partially revealed --- is no longer in the picture, and John determines to keep Daniel and Cathy safe the only way he knows how: by teaching them how to become as self-sufficient as he fashions himself to be.

John is a giant of a man, a one-time professional fighter who in some ways craves violence. He once earned a living by serving as an enforcer for Mr. Price, the quasi-feudal landlord who owns much of the town and nearly all of the farms in the vicinity. But now John has retreated, determined to keep his family safe and more than a little isolated, if that’s what it takes to protect them from the world that betrayed Daniel and Cathy’s mother: “Everything he did now was to toughen us up against something unseen. He wanted to strengthen us against the dark things of the world. The more we knew of it, the better we would be prepared. And yet there was nothing of the world in our lives, only stories of it.” Soon enough, though, those “dark things of the world” will come to find the small family, even amid the Edenic landscape they’ve created for themselves.

ELMET is set in a contemporary, or near-contemporary, time frame, and yet it feels much older, perhaps as ancient and primitive as the woods that Mozley describes with such reverence and awe. Her characters speak in a distinctive dialect, dropping initial articles in their dialogue; the imagery of Daniel and Cathy’s house virtually becoming part of the landscape also seems ancient, as does the tenuous social and economic structure of their rural community. Parts of the narrative involve a damaged, questing Daniel looking back on recent events, haunted by what’s happened. Once readers also witness the grotesque violence that simmers just beneath the surface of this isolated society, they’ll understand why he seems so anguished.

Given that Mozley is a virtual unknown, it was somewhat surprising that ELMET was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. However, anyone who reads it will discover why this achingly beautiful, brutally emotional novel deserves to be recognized and rewarded --- and enjoyed by readers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl

The Readers Room, does a Man Booker shadow panel every year (I've participated the last two years) and it's been such a fabulous experience. The list this year is very strong. I've loved almost everything I've read.

This one was the "surprise" of the list. and if you read the other reviews (I'm the only one who loved it) you'll see that it's definitely not perfect.
I was so engrossed in the story and with the people that I didn’t notice the melodrama while I was reading (though I recognize it in retrospect, I wouldn’t change the ending! There were aspects of it which were super satisfying.)

This is a story of family loyalty and survival. I guess because of the main characters loyalty and survival instincts I was endeared to them, which made me root for them which put me in a place of emotional response to everything which happened. I found the writing solid and the storytelling really good. It was transported the whole way through.

It's a little like a Little House in the Big Woods of our time, and there were aspects of it which reminded me of one of my my all time favorite books Into the Forest. Because of these things I think I was more tolerant of the flaws. One of the common complaints is of the voice of the narrator Daniel. For me, it worked. My impression of Daniel was of a person who was deeply more than he seemed on the surface and I think that was shown during his forays in the adult word. He was a naïve child to be sure, but introspective and to some degree sophisticated. Maybe I'm reading into it.

It's a short, engaging book, and certainly worth a go.

We are fortunate enough to have one of the Short Listed Booker Prize winners coming to our Lit Fest in March, so it seemed churlish not to read her book for our book group. I'll confess now, that I tend to run a mile from any Booker Prize novel and the nearer it is to the winner, the further I run. However, one of our members had read this and recommended it, so we gave it a go. It got a very varied response within our group so I was surprised to find myself really enjoying the way it was written, in spite of the fact that not a lot happened.

The author has a wonderful way with words and her main characters are beautifully drawn.
Daddy was a complete contradiction; to the villagers he was a huge hulk of a man with unbeaten fighting fists, to his children he was a gentle giant who built his hen coop adjoining the house so the fowl could share their heat. He decorated a tree in the forest with real candles for Christmas. When it burned down, Daddy insisted they move it one final time before burning it, in case any little creatures had made their homes below in its warmth.
Daniel, or Danny, was the narrator, he was a quiet boy, thoughtful and studious.
Cathy, Danny's older sister, took after her father, brawny and independent, her strength was deceptive. As Danny said "I had an inside sort of head, she had an outside sort of head."

The children had lived with their father and grandmother, while their fay mother came and went, to no rules. More often than not she was absent and when she reappeared she often slept for days. After the grandmother died, Daddy brought them to a piece of unused land and they built their own house in the woods. This felt very much of the early last century, but it was actually much more recent times, so it's no great surprise that eventually someone came along and claimed the land. Their peaceful, isolated existence is shattered and events hurtle out of control.
When we meet Daniel at the beginning of the book, he is wandering along a railway line searching for his sister.

A review of Elmet would not be complete without at least a couple of the beautiful quotes:
"The dawn erupted from a bud of mauve half-light and bloomed bloody as I woke." (Loc 2004).

"I did not know about etiquette, nor about the correct and proper ways in which men and women should conduct themselves. Nor did I have any understanding that there were parts of the the body that held a different worth, a different kind of value or category." (Loc 1697).

I'm so glad I read this, it was a real joy, and although it seems to get varied responses, I'd recommend it to anyone who loves a well written, character driven book, but doesn't require that every page is action packed.

I love bleak books. The bleaker the better. Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road, Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance and Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone (which reminds me most of Elmet) are among my favorites. As for Elmet, maybe I just don't get it. This Man Booker Prize Finalist (awarded each year for the best original novel, written in the English language and published in the UK), of course, is original, but things fall apart near the end of the novel.

The book jacket nearly tells all, "Daddy and Cathy and I lived in a small house that Daddy built with materials from the land here about...When a local landowner shows up on their doorstep, their precarious existence is threatened, their innocence lost. Daddy and Cathy, both of them fierce, strong, and unyielding, set out to protect themselves and their neighbors, putting into motion a chain of events that can only end in violence."

The writing is different, unique, excellent (p 5), "...when [the hare] stopped for a moment she was the stillest thing for miles around...It was as if she' had grabbed hold of the earth and pinned it down with her at its centre, and even the quietest, most benign landmarks spun outrageously around, while all of it, the whole scene, was suckered in by her exaggerated, globular, amber eye," (p 47) "I see a chain of pylons stretching from far-ground to foreground like a vast, disarticulated arthropod, and tethered shadows, more gargantuan still, lying upon the hills like the insignia of pagan forebears," (p 112) "It was as if Daddy and I had sprouted from a clot of mud and splintered roots and they had oozed from pure minerals in crystalline sequence," and (p 210) "The dawn erupted from a bud of mauve half-light and bloomed bloody as I woke."

***THE REST OF THIS REVIEW CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS - READ ON AT YOUR OWN PERIL***
Here's my beef with the book: the plot, in several spots, makes absolutely no sense.

Mrs. Randell, the headmistress
Believes two beaten-up boys' stories over that of a girl and her scrawny brother (p 43) "Those poor boys just wanted to play football on the beach and asked Cathy if she and Daniel wanted to join in."

John:
Chooses to squat on land owned by someone he knows will be antagonistic towards him and his family.
Steals money after, up until that point, having acted in a moral and ethical way towards those he steals from who are living in similar socioeconomic circumstances.
Doesn't pick up his family and simply leave when all heck breaks loose.

Vivien:
Watches the boy run away from the burning structure and doesn't try to help (p 304), "I saw you, what I thought to be you, rushing down the hill away from me, running as fast as you could. I would have followed but, somehow, I couldn't."

Cathy:
Leaves an item at the scene of a crime that fingers her father.
Has the strength of no 16-ish-year-old girl in the world (p 9) "We came there soon before my fourteenth birthday when Cathy had just turned 15." (p 33) "She was tall for her age, Cathy, and strong and fit." Burly six-foot-ish tall man versus a "tall for her age...and strong and fit" teenage girl. I know lots of teenage girls, some of them very strong and fit, but there is just no way I can believe that Cathy could do (in two instances) what she supposedly did. Things fall apart.

In summary, I can see why this novel with lovely, descriptive writing received critical acclaim, but in my mind, things fall apart when authors allow characters to act in ways that make absolutely no sense. No way could some of the things that supposedly go down in this book happen.

Reading Elmet was an echo back to my days in college, being exposed to classical literature that at first seemed dry and distant to my own experiences. But, now that I can read for pleasure alone, my approach to even dense books has morphed. I relax and let the story wash over me instead of urgently trying to find that prevailing thesis. Not that Elmet is difficult to read; the words are easily known and spoken, although there is a Faulkner-esque slash Homer style to some of the prose. Elmet refers to the last independent Celtic kingdom in England. The story begins with a hint of ancient myths and evolves into current and harsh realities. Elmet, in a grave and allegorical approach, channels stark themes about family, love, loyalty, pride, and alienation.

Daniel and his older sister, Cathy, grow up in a sylvan otherworld in a house built with their father’s hands, out in the woods of Elmet. He wanted his children to live their own lives, to make what they use, and be close to the natural world. They fashion archery bows with yew and oak, and play childhood games long into their teens. Early on, Daniel remembers “Tales of green men peering from thickets with foliate faces and legs of gnarled timber.” Later, with chapters italicized to indicate the present situation, “I think of my sister with her slick of black hair. I think on my Daddy and the words he did and did not speak. I think on the others, all eyeballs and teeth.”

Daniel, Cathy, and “Daddy” are fiercely loyal and loving to one another. Another page and Daniel is sitting with his father, sister and an “old squaddy,” who is smoking a cigarette rolled by Cathy. You sense the unrest when the old stranger makes lewd gestures toward Cathy, seen only by her and Daniel. The menace is incipient, and the reader is privy.

The narrative voice is more passive than a lot of contemporary family suspense dramas, giving it the voice of bygone years. The author, by setting her novel beyond even where Thoreau would dare to tread, created a timeless tale, not incidentally. It takes place in contemporary times, but the isolated woods, bleak atmosphere and rural lives could have been written for any time, and the imminent sense of violence is eternal and easily felt from the start, cold and searing. I felt icy while I sat reading. The plot advances with acutely subtle and granular progression, and the reading isn’t “fun.” It is not entertaining, as such, but it is powerful, disquieting, and enduring. The opening pages compelled me with its lyricism:

“I cast no shadow. Smoke rests behind me and daylight is stifled. I count railroad ties and the numbers rush. I count rivets and bolts. I walk north. My first two steps are slow, languid…I have passed through the turnstile and the gate is locked.”

So, at the beginning, we are pinned like the boy to this scene, with the dark air of danger in our midst. We then segue to a grim and bald reality. Father--builder and occasional day laborer, who also makes money fighting other men, one on one. He’s part of the poorer classes but above it, too, due to his unassailable gift of a colossal physical frame (that, too, almost myth-like), and his reputation as a conqueror of men. He’s also above the fray in that he is a talented builder of their well-made home, the best in all the land there, one that will outlast every other. But the land—that is another problem revealed by deliberate degrees.

This is a novel that demands your attention, as the rhythm of the narrative builds to its harrowing denouement. Even out in the wild, a gnawing suffocation is engendered and unleashes the worst of our fears. Like folklore or a parable, there is both a cautionary tale and a sustaining moral message to this sinister but heartfelt tale of gentle love and formidable pride. The quote from Ted Hughes about Elmet serves as warning: “…But even into the seventeenth century this narrow cleft and its side-ginnels, under the glaciated moors, were still a ‘badlands,’ a sanctuary for refugees from the law.” An astonishing piece of literature, and even more astonishing that this is Fiona Mozley’s debut novel!

Although the subject matter was interesting – society’s outcasts, I had certain reservations about a certain incoherence or contradiction in the voice (or, more properly, voices) of the first person narrator, Daniel. In dialogue, the character was fairly plain, given regional, almost phonetic dialect – rural South Yorkshire – and yet, somehow, despite being an outcast, not to mention school failure, though with erratic, though not advanced, home schooling, the internal first person voice was poetic, lyrical, sophisticated, erudite – and, moreover from the off felt like a female voice. Until the character was first named, I assumed that the narrator was a girl/woman. And although to a certain extend gender fluidity and sexual orientation was a partial subtext, the mismatch between the character voices felt far more a writerly mismatch because of the degree of verbal subtlety and nuance in thinking which can be expressed when there is a degree of linguistic sophistication. So I was constantly pulled out of reading by thinking ‘how does this character know these kinds of words and constructions – how can he have acquired this, given the history that we know’?

Daniel and his older sister Cathy – fiercer, more resilient, more secure of herself, far less emotionally sweet and dependent, have been brought up by their father, John ‘Daddy’ is tender with his children, but is someone who has made a living from his sometimes ferocious and violent physical strength – bare knuckle fighting. He exists in a modern kind of shadowy, subculture – a sometimes travelling, unskilled community. Livings are made through some shady dealings, gamblings, transient labour offered to wealthier, more organised, far more respected members of a community – sharkish property owners, exploitative employers of un-unionised unskilled labour, without the means and power to protect their own interests against rapacious and greedy beneficiaries from capitalism’s excesses. And, sometimes, John has provided muscle to enable those wealthier ones to further their bullying activities. He has though, by the time this story starts, seen the error of those ways, and is living as hidden as possible

He has built, without recourse to machinery, hired labour and the like, a house in the woods, mainly out of salvage, scrap, and fallen trees for his children. The mother is long vanished, somewhat mysteriously. She too was some kind of wilder child, coming and going, and her strayings and returnings – possibly linked with mental illness – accepted by John. The father and his son and daughter, at first pre-pubertal, and then into their early and midteens, are a tight knit family group, although despised to some extent by the more conventional, more settled community they sometimes integrate with – school, local shops for the things they cannot grow, forage for, kill or make. The times are more or less now, in a society as unequal as we know it is, though there is also a sense of the mythic and long ago, this-is-always-the-way-it-has-been-between-the-haves-and=the-have-nots, playing out

There are actually two time scales playing out. Time then is Daniel as a boy, then into his early-mid-teens, living with his father and his sister. Materially deprived, emotionally rich, loved and loving, connected to place, connected to humanity, meaning. Happy.

Intercut with this is the trajectory the book is moving towards, a definite casting out from a strange Paradise. The book opens with the Post Paradise section. The narrator is searching, and has been for some years, for his sister. Who may have fled North. Or South, The fleeing has clearly been from some deeply shocking, traumatic, violent event or series of events. The narrator, now a young man is powerless, traumatised, sometimes starving and clearly dependent of the kindness – not to mention at times, - the exploitation of strangers. He has little to sell except himself. As the search in ‘now’ continues, and some of the pitiful situations Daniel is currently in are revealed, the dark journey towards the casting out of Paradise scenario becomes clearer and not just violence itself, but the particular menace of the fear of its arrival, intensifies

I do think the author is definitely one to watch, there is a lot of really interesting matter for thought in here, but that first person narrator really jarred. A lot of substance, but, for me, style was an uncomfortable mismatch. And I am not someone who objects to first person narratives – it can be a wonderful device, as long as the reader believes ‘yes, this is this character’s voice’ rather than having a strong sense that the author has imposed their own voice onto their invention

I received this as an ARC from the publishers, via NetGalley

“We all grow into our coffins, Danny. And I saw myself growing into mine.”

I need to thank Netgalley and Algonquin books for a copy of this novel for an honest review.

Elmet follows the lives of a family on the outskirts who try to escape society as we know it. However, this life comes to these outskirts and changes everything.

This novel is a finalist for the 2017 Man Booker Prize.  

“But if something happens to my body. Well, I am able to put myself in such a position, that it's like it's not really happening. And if it's like it's not really happening that means it's not really happening. Do you see what I mean?”

The novel takes place in the United Kingdom, in an old Celtic Kingdom called Elmet from the Middle ages. What a place to have some good scenery and imagery!

Elmet is a beautifully written work with amazing imagery. Mozley does a good job in slowing each scene down in order to show the imagery of the setting. Even something as little as preparing a drink is enriched with so much description that the reader cannot help be there in the room with the characters.  There is no denying that Mozley sees the world with such enriching detail that I wish I had her eyes.

However, I had a very difficult time getting through this book. The action in it is somewhat limited, especially through the first half of the book. I really had a hard time getting through it. I am the type of person who needs some type of continuous action, and this book did not really deliver that. However, if you do not mind this and you like to be transported to a new, enshrouded world - this is the novel for you.

I was kind of hoping that this story would make me fall in love, to make me not want to look up from the pages. However, this book did not make me do this. The characters did not grasp me, which is a big factor in my reviews. This caused me to not really care what happens to these characters and, even through some shocking parts, none of it jarred me - not a good sign.

This book gave me the impression that I would be moved. Even the style reminded me of some exquisite literary piece. But, for me anyways, it did not take me to that place where I was left in wonder by the end. It seemed a bit flat for me.

Maybe I just didn't understand this book and what it was trying to accomplish. I should have known when Goodreads says that this book is "Contemporary"

Who Should Read This Book

You like fables
You need a lot of imagery to get through a novel
You do not need a lot of action in a novel
You like unique stories

Overall, I did not enjoy this novel, though I can see why other people did. The novel is beautifully written and is unique in terms of its symbolism and location. However, to me at least, the characters and story line were flat.

Wow, this story surprised me. A dad takes his two children “off the grid,” and they live in a fairytale-like world in the woods. In the end, real life intrudes in an extremely brutal way. Fiona Mozley’s prose is sparing but still somehow rich and atmospheric. Cormac McCarthy comes to mind. This was a very quick read for me but an impactful one. It’s great to see this kind of book on the Man Booker Prize shortlist. In one of those strange but surprisingly common coincidences, I’ve been reading a lot of these “off the grid” books recently (The Border of Paradise, Peace Like a River, The Snow Child, A History of Wolves, Elmet). Out of these, Elmet was the best one.

I just finished this and my reaction was that it was one of the most compelling and well-written novels I've read in quite awhile, and I read a fair amount. The story is about a man and his daughter and son who live "off the grid" in Scotland or Northern England, aiming at self-sufficiency in their hand-built house. The man makes his living by unsanctioned fights and his children are taken out of the local school and tutored by a friend. As for the theme, I would say it deals with revenge and bullying, and how no matter how hard one tries to disentangle from the outside world, it will always catch up with you. The man who claims to own the land they live on is the classic bully and there is a sense of impending conflict and doom that had me reading this in virtually one setting. I thought the main theme was economic, the injustices the rich and their henchmen impose upon the poor and those who oppose their greed. Also, the shrinking of the "commons," what used to be publicly owned is now privatized, leading to even more hardships for those who don't have the capital. A very relevant message today.
I've read 5 of the 2017 Booker Prize longlist/shortlist this year, and this is my favorite so far. It's on the shortlist and I hope it wins! And Hollywood is brain-dead if they don't snatch this up and turn it into a fantastic movie.

This is a story of an unconventional working-class family that lives off the grid. It's a story of a father with a capacity for violence whom you root for, and his two children, Cathy and Daniel, versus the aptly named landowner in their town of Elmet, Mr. Price. In many ways the traditional rich-landowner villain, Mr. Price could do with some lessons from the gentry of Downton Abbey in how to be a lord (in all but title). Downton Abbey: The Complete Collection. However, Mr. Price hates waste, and he sees John's family as wasting the land he owns, which belonged to their mother and which they make their home on. While Mr. Price's attitude is well-drawn (and subtly evokes feelings he had for Daniel and Cathy's mother), the reader can see how much John's family loves and cares for their land.

The drama between Mr. Price and John as well as the rest of the regular folk in town forms the plot, but it's the sense of place in Elmet seen through Daniel's eyes that makes the book come to life. "I planted pansies and daffodils and roses of all different colours and a cutting taken from a white-flowering climbing plant I found spewing from an old drystone wall. It was the wrong time of year to plant but some shoots came up and more came the following year. Waiting is what a true house is about."

Daniel and Cathy are unconventional children--they don't go to school, although they do have lessons with their father's friend Vivien in scenes that remind one of Mrs. Bertha Flowers in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and a little of Miss Moffat in The Corn is Green. Daniel and Cathy smoke and drink--Cathy rolls her own cigarettes. While some readers may wince at this, it fits perfectly with the family's overall approach to life. Cathy hunts with a bow and arrow--later in the book Cathy's independence and strength of character take some unusual turns. She, as well as Daniel and John and Vivien, are admirable characters--you'll fall in love with the writing, and the town of Elmet. From the first page when you meet Daniel while he escapes a fire to the climax, you'll want to linger in Elmet.

Daniel and Cathy live with their father on a quiet, remote piece of land, in a house they built with their own hands. Their mother was in an and out of the picture until one day she was just out. While their father worked, they mostly lived with their Gran, their father coming and going for long stretches, until one day he decided to settle down. Most of his life, their father had used his body, a body built like few had ever seen, as a way to make money, either through hard labor, or, most often, through fighting. But he was getting older, and it was time to put that part of his life aside.

In their little house, they lived an unconventional life, getting schooling from a neighbor friend, and spending their time in the woods and with each other. They could work the land, provide for themselves, and needed only each other for company. Their way of life bred in them an exceptional resilience and sense of loyalty to each other, characteristics they’ll need desperately when trouble comes their way in the form of an unethical landowner who essentially owns the town and all who live in it.

The thing about reading books that have won literary awards and the accolades of many is expectations are high from the onset, leaving a lot to prove. While I think this book was very good, and I appreciated it for what it was – excellent writing with stellar character development – it did not wow me. It’s better than good, but not amazing. So, here I am giving it 4 stars, which in my book is a great read, and I feel both guilty and disappointed that I couldn’t give it 5. But I digress…

Did I mention the character development was stellar? Because it was. And the mood was perfection. I loved the eccentricity of the characters, their commitment to each other and their home, their resiliency and their determination to rely on themselves.

But.

I had some issues with the storyline that I just can’t seem to let go. I wish I could discuss it in-depth without giving away a main part of the plot, but I can’t think of a way to do that. All I can say is, either there is something I missed/misunderstood, a key piece of information was left out, or my ethics are vastly different. While I don’t agree with the severity of the consequences, I find it difficult to side with Daniel’s family in terms of the actual dispute. While I empathize with their position, and clearly the children had no part in the decisions that were made, their father could have (and should have) chosen differently, and his stubbornness cost them all greatly in the end.

Ultimately, great writing. Phenomenal characters, perfect mood, and the setting was so well wrought that I can close my eyes and picture it even now. But I struggled to side with the main characters because of the unethical choice their father made, and that put me at odds with the story overall. But still 4 solid stars.

Note: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley. I pride myself on writing fair and honest reviews.

It's unusual for a first novel to become shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Award, but Fiona Mozley has done it this year with "Elmet". From Wikipedia: " Elmet was an area of what later became the West Riding of Yorkshire and an independent Brittonic kingdom between about the 5th century and early 7th century."

Although the novel is sent in present day, it reads like a medieval Fairy Tale, not in magical terms, but in tone, iconic plot and characters, and the haunting, direct-article bereft, Yorkshire dialect. Daniel, a young teen, is our first-person narrator. He and his slightly older sister Cathy (a la Hazel and Gretel), live with their "widower" father, John (a Giant, a Woodsman), in a secluded forest in Yorkshire. John often participates in (illegal) Bare-knuckle Boxing matches for money. Enter the Evil Landlord and his slimy sons (Ogre plus Trolls). Thus we are set up for a showdown of good verses evil.

Although that all sounds simplistic, that's not the case. Mozely raises it all to true literature through her poetic prose and her sumptuous and stunning descriptions of the Yorkshire forests. These are characters we immediately care about, especially Daniel, and his personal journey to find himself, as well as his physical journey in search of this his sister. I can't wait to read more from this gifted writer.

The epigraph tells us that Elmet was the last independent Celtic kingdom in England...for centuries a 'badlands' and sanctuary from the law.

This memorable novel is set in this part of Yorkshire; though it's a 21st century world, it feels ancient, timeless, brutal.
Teenage narrator Danny and his older sister live with their father, a feral world of self-sufficiency. They don't fit into the community- Cathy's complaints of ill-treatment at school are dismissed: "they're nice boys". Daddy is a bare-knuckle fighter, huge, apparently a gentle giant to his children, yet with an inner requirement for brutality: "your Daddy needs it. The violence. I wouldn't say he enjoys it, even, but he needs it. It quenches him."

In a world of travellers and corrupt landowners, events build to a horrific and unexpected crescendo...

Poetic, with beautiful descriptions of the rural landscape, yet unsparing of the darker side of life, this was a worthy Booker prize nominee.

Elmet is an unusual and captivating novel about family and place and the boundaries of society. Daniel is trying to get north, having left the home in the woods he lived in with his Daddy and sister Cathy. Once, Daniel and Cathy went to school and lived with their Granny, but then they left for the woods, free to be their own people. Their sanctuary has turned hostile, with the house built for them by their Daddy’s own hands under threat from local landowners.

Mozley’s novel is embedded in the Yorkshire countryside, a place that is Daniel and his family’s home, sustenance, and friend. The descriptions of it are raw and breathing, presenting the land as something not romanticised or boring, but a place of hard life and toughly-fought reward. The majority of the characters are poor and often transient or avoiding the system, and the landscape is shown as a place that can offer if not neutral then less established ground. Though it is a novel about family and countryside, it is also highly political in a way and steeped in class issues, with unscrupulous landowners ripping off ordinary people, and it shows one family’s attempt to live outside the usual political and social system.

Elmet is a raw and exciting book that should be read even by those who don’t think they like novels set in the countryside. It is also an important reminder that books set in the England beyond London need to be written, ones that show rural issues whilst telling stories of varied characters and lives.

This is a book about family bonds and lives outside the boundaries of the ordinary. It is well written--prose that flows and is a pleasure to read. (Caveat: Mozley does occasionally throw in a word apparently chosen just to be obtuse. Examples are "calor" and "cess." Check enough dictionaries and you'll find several definitions for each, none of which make any sense whatever in the context where used.) The characters are vividly and powerfully drawn, very much center stage in a setting (in northern England) which Mozley seems deliberately to keep rather hazy. The feel of a Greek trajedy, with the characters moving inexorably to a fated cataclysm.

There are two flaws. The intermezzos inserted here and there in the main action are about a quest. We only understand the nature of the quest when we come to the denouement--but the setup there is contrived and unconvincing. And Mozley introduces questions of sexual identity for her first-person protagonist in a way that is oddly furtive, truncated, and seems to have no grounding in the story itself, nor indeed for our understanding of its main character. Odd.

Still, a satisfying read. I look forward to more offerings from Fiona Mozley in the future.

I’m so mixed about this book. I am disappointed to say I didn’t really connect with it. Against the richness of Auster’s 4321 (my most recent read and another of the Man Booker Shortlist), this paled into the background - read at a different time or following another book I’m sure I’d have a different experience. Mozley’s writing is beautiful. Her ability to evoke all of the senses and put you firmly within a place is exceptional. I found the narrative voice slipped often and the soliloquies from Cathy were way beyond her years and limited education which jolted me out of the moment. That being said the novel is infused with powerful themes of ownership and control of land, mind and body which will stay with me for a long time to come. An enjoyable read and I’ll be following this debut author’s journey with keen attention.

Daniel lives with his father (Daddy) and sister (Cathy) in Elmet, in rural Yorkshire. They have recently moved there, built themselves a small home, and are living a self-sufficient existence. The actual owner of the land begins to cause problems, leading to a catastrophic event.

This story of family and relationships is narrated by Daniel after the event, and his voice is realistic. The characters are believable, their motives understandable. Mozley's prose is often poetic, always atmospheric, and generally engaging. Though I didn't actually enjoy Elmet, I must say that it is an intense and well-written novel.

i had a hard time getting through this book. There were things i enjoyed about the book; the timeless language, the character voice, and the way the book tells the story of rural poverty that seems like something from 100 years ago... until you realize it's a more contemporary time period. it's all an interesting framework for a book, but i felt like the plot evolved SO slowly and methodically, I kept putting it down and picking it up again and didn't REALLY get interested until about 2/3rds of the way through the book. That's an awfully long time to wait!

I'm not someone who needs a cliffhanger at the end every chapter, but i do need there to be some momentum. if i were chart it, it would be a nearly flat horizontal line with a sudden spike and a gradual decline.

if you're into books that do an excellent job of capturing an atmosphere, I'd recommend this, but i would think most readers would just find this too slow moving to wait for the payoff.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

This was part of my Man Booker Prize TBR. It is a beautifully written gritty story of a father (John) and his two children Cathy (15 years old) and Daniel (14 years old). The story is told from Daniel's perspective. The book focuses on their unusual lifestyle, how the daddy (as Daniel calls him) built their home and been fighting for their land. Also, there is a major part of it focusing on the dad's fighting skills and how he used that skill for a living.

From the epigraph, in the book, we understand that Elmet is the last independent Celtic kingdom in England. It is where the whole story takes place. This is a debut novel for Fiona Mozley and I have to say it doesn't feel as one. It feels you are reading a book by an experienced author. That is a great thing to accomplish. Will be looking forward to more books from this author in the future. The book contains violence so be warned about that but nonetheless, it is very delightful to read the story and life with the unique characters.

Elmet is a quick and easy read that does have substance. It keeps your attention and wondering. It is very unusual story, told by a young boy, about the events which take place between the main characters. The main characters are himself, his older sister, Daddy, and a local large land owner. The two kids are not being formally educated though some lessons are being offered by a friend of the dad.
Here lies the problem with the story for me. Though the boy is the story teller, I kept getting the picture in my mind of "him" as an older, educated, sophisticated women with a very good vocabulary. This was particularly true during the first 2/3's of book. He was 15 years old at the end of the book. This became a distraction to me. Though the boys sensibilities became clear as the book progressed, the telling never felt right to me.
The ending is very intense, but not a real surprise nor should it have been. It was definitely a fitting ending to this story.
Still... I did enjoy the reading and recommend the book.

This book is a well written descriptive of the lives of three individuals who reside in an area called Elmet. They do not own the land on which they have built their home, but feel a connection to the land on which they live.
Daniel, Cathy and their Daddy are free spirits living a natural life in tune with nature.
But there are those that want something from them and those people intend to ensure that they get their own way.
Daniel is narrating the tale so everything is from his view. He describes his relationship with both his father and his sister, as well as the people in the surrounding area.
Some locals want to get all that they can from the small family and Daniel tells the story of how they all interact with each other. Finally coming to the end, where his story started. Full of sadness, violence, love, hope and despair.
This was a very detailed, involving story and I did get very engrossed with it. However, I did find that it was somewhat skimpy in how it portrayed some aspects of the tale and felt it left me wanting, particularly in the 'italics' part of the story. Nonetheless, overall I enjoyed reading it and read it very quickly and intensively, as it was an engaging read.
A good first novel and happy to see a local author nominated for the man booker prize.

The prose and storytelling start off fresh and interesting and gradually become more conventional. The heroine of the book, as perceived by her brother (the narrator), turns out to be more mythic than realistic as their father becomes more realistic and less mythic.

The novel would be better if it observed a more rigorous realism. This is the 2nd novel I've read this year with a wise, selfless, super-capable backwoods teenage girl -- My Absolute Darling was the first. It would be possible to create an extraordinary teenage girl character without hyping her beyond all reason; I wish both authors had.

The writing of this novel was so artistic in its descriptions. I really felt like I was in this hamlet/copse. The descriptions were so life like that I could feel the cold, or the hugs, or the warmth from the fires, etc. I loved this father's love for his children. Even in spite of him being a kind of criminal. There was still this deep love and moral code and responsibility. I hated the ending and the life that the author chose for Daniel. This is not a feel good book for sure, maybe a more realistic outcome for a child raised in poverty.

The world can be a violent and brutish place, and escape may not be possible. In Fiona Mozley’s debut novel titled, Elmet, a father, daughter and son live in a rural area in a house built by hand on land owned by someone else. The landlord represents evil and encourages violence. This is a novel about outcasts and the bonds of family love, under which one does what is necessary to survive. Mozley’s prose is finely written, and readers who enjoy literary fiction are those most likely to enjoy this novel.

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

About midnight, with forty pages yet to go, I decided I couldn’t turn out the light. I needed to know how this was going to end. More than I needed sleep. For that...which very few authors elicit from me...five stars.

Mozley earned her spot on the Man Booker short list. This is a fine first novel. Her writing is fresh and beautifully literary, even when the subject matter is a dark and painful coming of age. The story is narrated from the point of view of her younger brother, and that adds interest as well.

This is a very unique novel. Although set in modern days, it felt more like the setting was a hundred or more years ago. I loved the writing style and character development of Daniel, Cathy, and their father. The italicized chapters of Daniel's journey were particularly heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. I look forward to more from Fiona Mozley. Her writing is absolutely gorgeous, lyrical, and haunting!

I guess if you approach this as a fable set in the 19th century or earlier you might enjoy it more than I did, since many of the happenings/characters are too bizarre/unlikely to be real. Problem is it's set in the present day so it's extremely hard to suspend disbelief. The writing is fine, but neither the story nor characters are gripping to any real degree. Man Booker quality? I don't think so.

Deservedly on the Man Booker shortlist at the time I read it, this quietly poetic novel simmers with the anger of the narrator's sister, Cathy, and glows with the purity of the narrator, Daniel. Rich with evocations of nature in the Northern English countryside, the narrative unhurriedly establishes the opposition between Daniel's family - squatting land not their own and living in harmony with it as they might have done 700 years before - and the landowning Price family with their fast cars, priviledged educations and utter lack of morals or empathy. The conflict, which focuses particularly on Daniel's father and sister - each of whom embodies primeval natural forces - and on the sadistic Price, takes on the tragic resonances of the most ancient of battles between good and evil. The final scenes pack a punch as hard as any Daniel's giant-like boxer father might administer and have continued to haunt me since I finished the book. I look forward to seeing what Fiona Mozley will deliver in the future.

I struggled with this book, and I am an avid reader and retired teacher. Maybe it was the fact that this was a British author and I am American, but I had to stop and look up words in every paragraph. Words like “gambolled” “copse” “squaddy” “knacker.” And those were all on one page. It really interrupted the flow of the reading, and definitely affected my enjoying it.
Then there was the author’s love of detailed descriptions, with whole pages describing a tree, another whole page describing a rabbit. I became so frustrated and impatient.
I didn’t care about the main character or the story. All I cared about was finishing the book so it could be over and I could write my review. This rarely happens to me as I love reading.
This book claims to be a 2017 Man Booker Prize Finalist. I felt the writing was poor. I did not enjoy reading it.

The North Of England, a brutal land for man and beast. Jobs long gone, and everyone must eke out the living they need. Here we find Daniel a 13 year old boy telling us the story. His father has no understanding of why Daniel likes to do housework. It is his sister, Cathy,14, who is strong with more qualities his father admires. And, then, there is Daddy as he is known, or John, such a big rugged man who earns his living by fighting. They live in a house they built themselves on land owned by their mother. Before you ask, no mention of mother nor what happened is mentioned. They made their own furniture, killed their own meat, and lived their life. Cathy and Daniel went to school until Cathy was bullied, and their Daddy moved them to Yorkshire. Vivian, a friend of Daddy’s educates them in her own way. It is not until a man. Mr Price, comes into their life to cause mayhem that things begin to change. Daddy/John leads a protest of sorts and gets into difficulty, and in order to compromise a situation occurs.

This is a spellbounding book of sorts. The writing excels, and is one reason this book was a Boomer’s Prize finalist. You will find yourself woven into the context of this storyline. Quite a feat for the author.

Recommended. prisrob 12-17-17

Really 1 1/2 stars. Could have been a short story if all the poetic descriptions were cut back; no need to devote a whole page to how an armchair looks. All leading up to the last 50 pages where something finally happened. This is the type of book critics rave about but it didn't meet my expectations.

I loved this book. It's written with unseen amounts of tension, where it appears nothing is happening but character establishment and exploration for about 200 pages. Then, it explodes and your heart races for the remainder of the novel. All of Mozley's characters in the book are morally ambiguous, which made the simple actions by anyone unusually complicated. I couldn't put it down.

Elmet is an interesting novel that would probably have slipped by unnoticed if not for the Booker - It was Evocative, subtle, and poetic. I was particularly captivated by the fact that the narrative is so controlled - it approaches many things, yet subtly retreats while leaving a haunting impression of what is left unwritten. This Book will stay with me for a long time.

My 4 year old son received as a gift and he loves it. The CD has great line up of the Disney Junior theme songs and he watches all the shows so it perfect. The only issue is the songs are very short- maybe a minute or less in most cases and there are only 8 songs because the other 8 tracks are the same but with vocals. That is the typical number of songs that the Disney Karoke CDs have but it would be nice to have more songs from the shows on the CD given they are so short. We already had the Disney Princess Karoke CD and the Frozen Karoke CD and those are great as well. We love the Disney Karoke Series CDs!

“Elmet” by Fiona Mozley is one of those books that deserve the 5-star rating based on sheer stark beauty of prose. It is also a deeply disturbing view of the difference between the crushing evil of those who pretend to be civilized and those who are honest in accepting the necessity for violence. This book reads like a Greek tragedy set in modern times. I can’t say it was a joyful story, but I can say it is one in which I became completely involved. A truly extraordinary narrative!

Prose, plot, pace of the storytelling—— this book is so good, you will want to recommend it to all your readers and other friends and family.
Very nice to know we have another talented new writer!!