The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Tinder Press (10 Jan. 2019)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1472234804
• ISBN-13: 978-1472234803

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

Audrey Hart is on the Isle of Skye to collect the folk and fairy tales of the people and communities around her. It is 1857 and the Highland Clearances have left devastation and poverty, and a community riven by fear. The crofters are suspicious and hostile to a stranger, claiming they no longer know their fireside stories.

Then Audrey discovers the body of a young girl washed up on the beach and the crofters reveal that it is only a matter of weeks since another girl disappeared. They believe the girls are the victims of the restless dead: spirits who take the form of birds.

Initially, Audrey is sure the girls are being abducted, but as events accumulate she begins to wonder if something else is at work. Something which may be linked to the death of her own mother, many years before.

 

Review

The Story Keeper is a deliciously dark and gothic tale of the importance of stories in different social groups and what they mean to those groups.  Our leading lady is Audrey Hart who travels from London to Skye to take up the position of assistant to a folklorist, but also to lay some ghosts from her past to rest.  The more time Audrey spends on Skye the more she finds herself believing their stories and myths and questioning her own beliefs and reason; could young girls be taken by bird like creatures called Slaugh, rather than by human hand.

I am a huge fan of historical fiction, especially when I can learn something from the book.  Anna Mazzola sets this book on Skye in 1857, a period of great change for the residents of the island as their land was turned over to the grazing of sheep by the land owners forcing the tenants out of work and out of their homes.  Anna Mazzola captures the desolation of both the land and the people living there, who are poor to begin with and face their communities disappearing, and with them their stories and beliefs.  The stark and bleak landscape mirrors the starkness of the communities and added to that the death of a young woman makes for an atmospheric and at times menacing read.

Audrey Hart is a young woman running away from a life she doesn’t want.  She wants to read and write whereas her father and step-mother want her to conform and give up her books in favour of marriage.  Skye is as far from her life in London as she can get, as is her life at Lanerly Hall working for the reclusive Miss Buchanan.  Skye is a place close to Audrey’s heart as she used to visit with her mother, who was a free spirit rather like her, andals loved to collect the stories of locals . Audrey is a strong character, ahead of her time, wanting to break away from convention, lead her own life and earn her own money; all qualities that make her such a wonderful character.  Anna Mazzola’s characterisation of the local community bring Skye to life; the old woman who claims to see into the future, the priest who tries to put down the stories as they go against the religion, and the Lord of the Manor who cares only for the money and not his tenants. A real mixed bag that make the whole such a wonderful read.

The Story Keeper is a sublime read, with character, attention to detail, and a story that draws you in and commands your attention.  Anna Mazzola gives us more than just great fiction, she details the period where communities were practically destroyed in the name of money and with them the cultural and social traditions; many went to Canada and America to start new lives.  This is gothic in style, including a dark gothic mansion,  with an undercurrent of menace and danger that add to the atmosphere of this beautiful novel.   I loved this book and cant wait to read more from Anna Mazzola.