Sunday 24 October 2021

The Marsh House by Zoë Somerville

 


The Marsh House

by Zoe Somerville

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Zoë Somerville’s second novel, The Marsh House, switches between two timelines, both set against the backdrop of the eponymous house built in the North Norfolk coast.

The novel’s “present” is December 1962.  Still nursing her wounds following a painful marriage breakdown, Malorie decides to spend Christmas with her little daughter Franny at a remote house in Norfolk.  She chooses her destination on a whim, solely because, judging from a photo given to her before her mother’s death, it seems that the building has some mysterious connection with her parents’ past.  In the old attic, Malorie discovers notebooks in which Rosemary, a woman who had lived at the house over three decades before, relates her tragic story.  The second plot timeline is, in fact, provided by the content of these notebooks, which describe a local tragedy which unfolded in the politically charged period between the two great wars.  As Malorie becomes more and more engrossed with Rosemary’s tale, she increasingly feels that she is being haunted by its protagonists.

The Marsh House borrows many Gothic and horror tropes, with the most obvious being the setting – a rundown mansion at the verge of the Norfolk marshes, redolent of Michelle Paver’s Wakenhyrst. As in the best supernatural tales, the novel plays on the element of doubt – are the Malorie’s visions otherworldly in nature, or simply the creation of an overworked, troubled, altered mind?   The fluidity between past and present sometimes makes this more of a timeslip novel (that, and the Christmas context reminded me at times of Alison Littlewood’s Mistletoe.) 

Atmospheric and creepy as The Marsh House is, I ultimately felt that it works best as a piece of vividly conceived historical fiction which can be read and enjoyed even without the supernatural trappings.  This is a novel which looks into unsavoury aspects of the inter-war years, particularly the rise of pro-Nazi sentiment in Britain.  Without any facile condemnations, Somerville depicts families falling under the spell of a hateful ideology and the cruel consequences of this, set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world which is turning its back on the rural wisdom of its elders.   

Kindle Edition
Expected publication: March 3rd 2022 by Apollo/Head of Zeus

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