Michelle
Paver is best known as the author of the hugely successful Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series; but in Dark Matter she takes the darkness to a deeper level - one which,
as she says in the back-of-the-book-interview, would be too much for a
children’s novel.
The
year is 1937, and Jack Miller, an impoverished young physics graduate and
export clerk, accepts the position of wireless operator with a geological and
meteorological expedition to an island off the north coast of Norway.
Socially
isolated at home and very much aware of the class divide that separates him
from the other members of the team, Jack at first revels in the stark beauty of
the Arctic.
The expedition, however, is dogged by bad luck, and circumstances
eventually conspire to leave him on his own in the darkness of the months-long
Arctic night. But although left by himself, Jack is not entirely alone...
Dark Matter is in many ways a good
old-fashioned ghost story; but what sets it apart is the ingenious setting.
Alongside the sense of period, Paver conjures up the bleakness of the Arctic
and the darkness of its winter quite wonderfully, and with them a genuine sense
of Jack’s fear. The development of Jack’s character - his own thawing-out and
the slow divesting of his habits of solitude - are deftly handled, and make his
eventual isolation and the events that follow all the more harrowing.
This
is not one to read by yourself on a long winter’s night unless you really enjoy
being scared; but it is a great book, and one that is as beautifully written as
it is suspenseful. Recommended for all but the faint-hearted.
John Dougherty
www.visitingauthor.com
Return to REVIEWS HOMEPAGE
3 comments:
I read this and thought it was a very strong story. Powerful sense of place and powerfully spooky!
We were all reading this book here last Christmas! It's a great ghost story, and the author's knowledge of the territory makes it all the more believable.
I agree, it's a great story with such a hint of menace, not one to read on a dark and stormy night!
Post a Comment