From the double Man Booker prize-winning author of 'Wolf Hall', this is a dark fable of lost faith and awakening love amidst the moors.
Fetherhoughton is a drab, dreary town somewhere in a magical, half-real 1950s north England, a preserve of ignorance and superstition protected against the advance of reason by its impenetrable moor-fogs. Father Angwin, the town's cynical priest, has lost his faith, and wants nothing more than to be left alone. Sister Philomena strains against the monotony of convent life and the pettiness of her fellow nuns. The rest of the town goes about their lives in a haze, a never-ending procession of grim, grey days stretching ahead of them.
Yet all of that is about to change. A strange visitor appears one stormy night, bringing with him the hint, the taste of something entirely new, something unknown. But who is Fludd? An angel comes to shake the Fetherhoughtonians from their stupor, to reawaken Father Angwin's faith, to show Philomena the nature of love? Or is he the devil himself, a shadowy wanderer of the darkest places in the human heart?
Full of dry wit, compassionate characterisations and cutting insight, Fludd is a brilliant gem of a book, and one of Hilary Mantel's most original works.
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[On Wednesday the bishop came in person]***
(@4thEstateBooks, 6 May 2010, first published 1989, 198 pages, e-book, bought from @AmazonKindle)
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One of the most enjoyable things about this fantastic little novella is what is left unsaid. A lot happens in its scant pages but things are left pretty open. We're never really told who or what Fludd is. Father Angwin learns he's not a priest and wasn't sent to the village by the bishop so who is he? Is Fludd a devil sent to tempt Father Angwin who's lost his faith and the bored villagers? Is he a crazy person posing as a priest to ruffle the feather and stir up trouble? Is he something else? Or is a priest of some kind the bishop doesn't know? Mantel leaves it's open for your to reach your own conclusions. This is well worth a read.
