Michael Fishwick’s new novel tells the story of a young man called Robbie, who has been uprooted from his London home after his mother’s death. He finds himself in rural Dorset, where he inhabits a capacious present that has ample room for the intrusions of the mythic past.
Struggling with his loss, Robbie has taken to using arson to express his rage — which is why his father, having rapidly acquired a new partner and a couple of stepdaughters, has moved the family to his old childhood home to make a new start. But it’s an ancient start that this landscape has on offer. Robbie makes friends with a girl called Mags, just a few years older than he is, but a wise woman before her time, and she immediately introduces him to the folklore of the area, and in particular to the poetry associated with hares — creatures that defy fire.
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