Perfect Sunday evening schmaltz

Set in rural England in 1911, Tim Pears’s latest novel tells of a friendship between 12-year-old Leo, a precocious carter, and Lottie, the daughter of the master of the farm on which he and his father work. The Horseman is the first instalment of what will be a trilogy, and it is perhaps for this reason that the pacing of its plot feels somewhat preambular: Leo and Lottie bond sporadically over a shared love of animals, but little else of note happens until the very end. It is the setting rather than the story that is foregrounded in these pages. The bulk of the novel is an affectionately rendered tableau of pastoral humdrum: sheaves of barley are loaded on to a wagon; some rabbits are killed in a ferret-assisted hunt; a flagon of cider is passed around between farmers at rest; a large black pig called the Pharaoh is slaughtered and dissected at length; traps are laid for vermin; a sheep gets the gid and has to be put down; there is even a horse auction.