First novels can be hit or miss and this one has wowed critics and the public . It’s not an easy read and. Subject matter is challenging at times but it is beautifully written .

Unfortunately I didn't connect with this at all. It is beautifully, beautifully written but develops slowly.

A small family builds a house in the forest outside the village of Elmet. John is the father, a giant of a man who makes what money they need in fights and doing favors for others. The children are Cathy, 15, and her brother Daniel, 13. The land they possess used to belong to their mother who disappeared from their lives and who sold the land to the man who owns most of everything in Elmet, Mr. Price.

The family lives happily off the grid, hunting and growing their food, building their own furniture and tending to the forest and land. The children go to the house of one of John's friends, Vivian, who teaches them what she can. Daniel loves the lessons but Cathy is a child of outside and usually leaves early to go listen to the animals and roam the land.

But paradise is always ruined. John and a former union organizer create a plan to help the villagers against Mr. Price and his cronies. These men hire the villagers at day labor for a pittance but the rents on their cottages rise year after year. Organized, the men are able to negotiate better pay and lower rents but it comes at a price. John must agree to one last fight for the landowners.

After that fight, a crime occurs and the life the family has been living is ruined forever. They stick together and fight to remain as a family but everything around is against them. The village will never be the same nor will they.

This debut novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2017. Mozeley creates a world that seems perfect yet dreamlike and unable to exist in the world as it is. John, the father, is a man comfortable with himself and his body and attempts to do what is right. Cathy is most like John and is determined to also live life on her own terms. Daniel isn't sure what his life will be but knows he needs these two individuals by him to be happy. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Thanks very much to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. Many thanks, Dave

Elmet is the story of two children – Daniel and Cathy – who live with their father in a house in a forest, largely apart from the rest of society. It’s a strange, rather spartan life in which their father seeks to keep them separate from the world but also to protect them from some undisclosed danger. As fourteen-year-old Daniel, the book’s narrator, says, ‘Everything he did now was to toughen us up against something unseen. He wanted to strengthen us against the dark things in the world.’ Despite their very basic lifestyle and lack of creature comforts, the two children have a strong bond with their father. ‘Cathy and I did not mind taking orders from Daddy. Sometimes we were more like an army than a family and he was not the type of leader to make you do anything for nothing.’

An interesting aspect of the children’s upbringing is the way it has blurred, even removed, gender distinctions. As Daniel observes, ‘You have to appreciate that I never thought of myself as a man. I did not even think of myself as a boy… It is not as if I had ever actively rejected that designation. I just never thought about it. I lived with my sister and my father and they were my whole world. I did not think of Cathy as a girl nor a woman, I thought of her as Cathy. I did not think of Daddy as a man, though I knew that he was. I thought about him, likewise, as Daddy.’

Whilst an intense and, at times, disturbing read, I liked the way the author introduced themes such as concern for the environment. In contrast to the local landowner, who regards the land merely as a source of profit, the children’s father carefully tends the forest and teaches his children the skills to do the same. ‘In order to let new growth fight through, overhanging branches, crumbled bark and fallen trees must be cleared. Weeds in the undergrowth must be managed. The right shoots must be let through and the wrong ones discouraged.’ Much like indigenous people in other parts of the world, the children’s father cannot understand the concept of ownership of land. “It’s idea a person can write summat on a bit of paper about a piece of land that lives and breathes, and changes and quakes and floods and dries, and that that person can use it as he will, or not at all, and that he can keep others off it, all because of a piece of paper.”

When resistance grows to the landowners who wield power over the local community, the stakes are raised and events take a dark turn. As one of the leaders of the resistance, the children’s father becomes a target for retaliation of the most brutal kind and the children’s ability to respond to ‘the dark things in the world’ for which their father has prepared them is finally put to the test.

Elmet, an ancient Celtic land now .part of Yorkshire provides a sanctuary to Daniel, Cathy and their father. The peace of that part of their lives is short lived, and the violence of the opposition to their life on the land erupts. This is a lyrical, visceral novel, exploring family, outsiders, and the threat that powerful people feel when poor people choose not to play by their rules. The landscape is beautifully and unsentimentally evoked and provides a living backdrop to the explosive events of Fiona Mozley’s excellent novel.

I really enjoyed Elmet, if ‘enjoy’ is the kind of word that can be used for a story that is filled with so much sadness and violence.
Daniel is a teenager who narrates his family’s story. There is Daniel’s sister Cathy, who is tough, much tougher than Daniel himself. There is Daniel’s father, who has built their house on land that doesn’t belong to him. He earns money from odd jobs, manual labour, and when money is tight he takes part in bareknuckle fights. There are also brief glimpses of a distant and addicted mother who still holds influence over the lives of her family long after she is gone.
And then there is the ruthless landowner Mr Price who owns the land that Daniel’s house is built on, and who has a score to settle with Daniel’s father.
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While I often found Daniel’s voice to be very feminine, and had to remind myself that it was him and not Cathy narrating, it all made sense in the end. The story is slow burning and took me about 100 pages to really get into it, but then I was hooked. While it’s violent and brutal at times, there are also great moments of tenderness. The love that Daniel’s father has for him and his sister is clear. His determination to protect them and build a home for them no matter what the cost, while inevitably his downfall, is also very moving.
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I know that this one has received mixed reviews, perhaps due to it being a debut novel and making the shortlist for the Booker in 2017, which meant that it was scrutinised more than if it hadn’t been shortlisted. I wasn’t too concerned about that to be honest. For me it was an original story about a marginalised family, and I thought it dealt with issues that I hadn’t ever really considered or been presented with in a novel. I think it’d make a great bookclub choice - there’s a lot to discuss, both in the writing itself and the subject matter.

I have loved the opportunity to spend time researching novels to re-stockl our senior bookshelves in the school library that plays a central role in the life of the school. When I first took over the library was filled with dusty tomes that were never borrowed and languished there totally unloved.
Books like this, play a central role in ensuring that the library is stocked with fresh relevant fiction that appeals to the readers. It has a strong voice and a compelling plot that ensures that you speed through its pages, enjoying both its characterisation and dialogue whilst wanting to find out how all of its strands will be resolved by the end.
I have no hesitation in adding this to the 'must buy' list so that the senior students and staff of the school can enjoy it as much as I did. This is a gripping read that will be sure to grip its readers whether they are fans of this genre or coming to it for the first time through our now-thriving school library recommendation system. Thanks so much for allowing me to review it!

One of the best books of 2017, reviewed here for you by me, ridiculously late, because I am one of those people who tends to avoid debut novels that receive ALL THE HYPE, especially those that are worthy of Man Booker Prize nominations. My mistake. Revaluating my approach as I type.

Elmet is a powerful and deeply-affecting novel about familial ties, centred around 14-year-old narrator Daniel, his 15-year-old sister Cathy and their father, a brutish, bareknuckle fighter by the name of John. They live in an own-build home on a copse in a remote and lawless woodland area in Northern England, which was once owned by the family of Daniel and Cathy's mother (she comes in and out of their lives, we learn, but is not a constant presence in their reality).

Daniel is an effeminate boy who challenges gender stereotypes by not identifying himself as male or female. Unaware (or ignorant) of societal norms, Daniel rejects gender and simply sees his sister as 'Cathy' and not a woman, exactly, and his father as 'Daddy', and not as a man specifically. In his distance from the local community (the children don't attend school anymore), Daniel allows his hair and nails to grow long, and wears cropped t-shirts with his tight jeans because that's the way his mother dressed. His sister and father are his world, and Cathy is his North Star:

"Big sister, little brother. I wanted her to always lead the way, tell me what was what, carry me home."

This novel is a slow-burner. It is particularly rich in backstory and some readers may be put off by the apparent lack of drama. The plot seems hollow and light. Until it isn't. When local wealthy and powerful landlords become greedy and start swarming around the family's property, the tension amps up a lot and things become very, very tense. Mr. Price, the head landlord, if you will, purchased the family's property from Daniel and Cathy's mother when the family were in a bad way, unbeknownst to John. Now, he wants the property back and is prepared to go to drastic measures to settle the score. What seemed like a gentle and measured story, soon becomes a dark and visceral contemplation on violence, land ownership and familial ties.

I was taken completely by surprise by this novel but it wasn't long before I was completely taken in by it. In the vein of Evie Wyld and Daniel Woodrell, this novel shines a light on an isolated and lawless community in a remote land, in a place where history and lineage mean more than federal law, and violence solves disputes. I loved the bleak, gritty and almost swampy feel of the drama, and the writing was exceptional. The reflection on land and place is beautifully rendered and makes for a vivid and atmospheric read. The characters were unique and the challenge and rewriting of gender, particularly in the character of Cathy, is refreshing and memorable. While some people may find the final scenes of this book a little farfetched, I found them gripping, searing, and an unapologetic stab at power and class barriers in the name of personal justice.

This book is a revelation and I am grateful to Fiona Mozley for sharing it with us. All of the stars.

A good man who loves violence battles to protect his children and stop his off-the-grid home from being taken away. Although it’s set in the present day, Elmet reads as a medieval story – the conflict between landowners and peasants translated to modern day class conflict.

There are many great scenes, and in some ways this is well-written. But I found myself skipping past long descriptive passages of forest, and the horror of certain scenes were never counterbalanced with any sense of redemption, so the ending felt unsatisfactory to me.

I didn’t feel this was worth the Booker Prize shortlist plaudit, and it wasn’t for me. Not recommended.

A modern-day fairytale/ fable that is completely worth the hype! It had me gripped from the very beginning, in fact, I devoured it in two days. The Yorkshire dialect did take a bit of getting used to but it is well worth persevering with it. A perfect combination of family, drama, mystery with a hint of the mythical that left me in tears at the end.

Not a book I could get in to, unfortunately. We read it for book club and It seemed to have polarised people in their opinions. I can't review this book properly as I couldn't finish it. Not badly written in any way shape or form, just didn't grab me.

I didn't get on with this at all. Beautifully written, but so slow and I wondered if it was going anywhere at all. About half way through I had a peek at the final pages and it didn't seem like there was any resolution so I abandoned it. Sorry, not for me.

Elmet was a surprise inclusion on the shortlist of the 2017 Man Booker Prize. Or perhaps, with hindsight, its success should not have been surprising at all. It is, in fact, a genuinely original debut novel.

The story is narrated by teenager Daniel, who lives in a rural area of Yorkshire with his slightly older sister Cathy and John, the man they call Daddy. Daddy is a burly giant who has a reputation as a prize fighter and survives at the fringe of legality. His fighting skills are put to good (for that read “dubious”) use by debt-collectors and by organisers of illicit bare-knuckle fights. John and the children lead a somewhat nomadic life, especially after the death of the children’s grandmother. They move to a rural area of Yorkshire, where Daddy builds a house in a copse on land belonging to local landowner Price. This not only attracts the unwanted attention of Price (to whom Daddy seems to by mysteriously linked by past events) but also draws the enmity of powerful businessmen who see John as a threat. Daddy resists, and finds himself thrust forward as the champion of the downtrodden and exploited workers and tenants of the area.

“Elmet” was the last Celtic kingdom of England, which later became part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The novel is headed by quote from “Remains of Elmet” by Ted Hughes, which describes the area as a “badlands – a sanctuary for refugees of the law”. The title therefore juxtaposes the contemporary setting of the novel against a more timeless, ancient landscape. There are other elements which invite a ‘mythical’ reading of the work. The repeated reference to John as “Daddy” suggest that he is more of an archetype than a flesh and blood character. The simple yet lyrical narrative voice suits the teenage narrator, but is also redolent of the poetic language of legend. There are also clear references to tales of Yorkshire outlaws, particularly “Robin Hood and his Merry Men”.

This contrast between the ancient and the new is interesting but it also gives rise to some inconsistencies. John is often given a romantic aura – althougha violent man, he seems to follow an ancient moral code, one which is, at heart, decent, coupling a respect for nature and with attention to the needs of fellow man. However, this ‘code of honour’ sometimes sits uncomfortably with the evidently leftist-liberal worldview of the novel which is presented in no unsubtle terms. John’s children, for instance, very evidently represent a contemporary view on gender - Cathy is a strong female warrior (literally) whilst John is, it is strongly suggested, gay. On the whole, it seems that John is fine with this which, frankly, does not seem altogether credible. Indeed, in one of the initial chapters however, there is a passage that implies that Daddy’s feelings towards Cathy verge on the abusive and which contradicts the generally positive portrayal of this giant. And John’s moral code, despite his defiance of the “bad guys” such as Price, is not too different from theirs, one in which disputes are solved through violence.

In my view, the novel works best if one reads it for its lyrical, narrative flow, and the sustained undercurrent of tension and violence which explodes in the final pages. The ending is deliberately harrowing and graphic, and I caught myself squeamishly looking away from the book. Yet, it fits the novel and is by no means out of place. Like Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss, also set in North England, Elmet explores contemporary concerns in a novel where the past seems to be continuously looking over our shoulders.

A powerful book about the nature of family in today’s society, ‘Elmet’ by Fiona Mozley is also about our relationship with the earth, nature, and existence without the trappings of modern life. Except it is impossible to escape completely.
The narrator, fourteen-year-old Daniel Oliver, is walking north in pursuit of an unnamed someone. As Daniel walks on, we see flashbacks to what happened before he set off on his journey. Danny’s life with his sister Cathy is split into two parts: living with Granny Morley beside the seaside where their father and mother are, separately, occasional visitors to the house; then later, living in a wood with Daddy, in a house hand-built, foraging off the land. At the beginning the descriptions of the rural landscape made me think this was a historical setting but ‘Elmet’ is set today, making the circumstances of the family more disturbing. They live off the land and the money earned bare knuckle fighting by Daddy, John Smythe. They live on the margins; the children are home-schooled, and receive payment in kind [a carton of orange juice from the milkman, chops from the butcher] for favours done. Daniel and Cathy visit a neighbour’s house each morning for lessons, though it is not clear how Vivien knows John or what favour he has done her. It is a story of hints and implications, expecting the reader to wonder and explore possible gaps in the children’s history without knowing all the facts. Sometimes this worked, at other times I felt it made me miss some of the subtleties.
The story gathers pace as the odious Mr Price, a local landowner, appears on the scene with his two equally odious sons. His mistreatment of the Smythe family is echoed by the exploitation of farmworkers and tenants not only by Price but by other local farmers and landlords. As the downtrodden gather together at the Smythe house in the woods, a plan is devised to face up to the bullies. Watching it all are Smythe’s two teenage children, almost but not quite adults, understanding some of what is happening but not the implications or cost. Both are still discovering their own identities and there is a degree of gender confusion; while Cathy prefers the outdoors and reacts first with fists flying, Daniel is the homemaker.
While some of the characters are thinly-drawn – Price, Vivien – Mozley writes poetically about the wilderness of nature, the trees, plants and animals, the passing of the seasons. She creates a visual picture of the house in the woods, of Cathy plucking a mallard, of Daniel cooking eggs and bacon. But for me the plot stumbles rather than flows and would have been helped by a little more exposition about the children’s mother and why their father is determined to take them away from their regular lives. Though Daniel’s observations are beautiful he is an unconvincing narrator, his voice too mature and sophisticated for a home-educated teenager. The transition from his thoughts – “It was as if Daddy and I had sprouted from a clot of mud and splintered roots and they had oozed from pure minerals in crystalline sequence” – to vernacular dialogue and the use of ‘wandt’, dindt’ and ‘doendt’ jarred.
The book closes without a natural ending, simply a pause in proceedings, as life meanders its course for Daniel. An elegiac read, beautiful if flawed, it covers a lot of moral questions for today. Families living on the margins of society and their right to choose to live how they want, the exploitation of the poor by the wealthy, family love and loyalty when faced with extreme threat, and what happens when you take justice into your own hands. A promising debut. Shortlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

Simply astounding. All the hype is justified. Elmet has nothing wrong with it, and sits alongside 'Devils Day' and 'Reservoir 13' as an example of perfect descriptions of contemporary english countryside living.

I agree with the other reviews of this book on Net Galley. This book is fast paced, the characters are true to life, and not a little scary. I could identify with all the young people, and how frightened they were.

I really liked the setting of this book and the way the tension slowly builds up - you just know something bad is going to happen! I found the three main characters really interesting and I enjoyed the relationship between them.
However I did think the ending was very over the top and the narrative was overly descriptive at times.
But very readable and enjoyable overall.

Daniel and his older sister Cathy live in the woods with their Daddy. I struggled to finish this and did not find it compelling.

A brilliantly well written debut.

Read mostly whilst away doing lots of walking through fields, which made it even better - Mozley’s descriptions of the English countryside are so evocative that it almost makes you appreciate it more.

The story/plot is reasonably simple, but it never feels boring or overly simplistic - the characters are interesting and have depth, it left me wanting to read so much more beyond the end of the book.

The ending is open ended, which doesn’t often bother me, I did however feel like the occurrences leading up to the end came quite thick and fast, particularly in contrast to the opening few chapters which were very heavy on nature and the activities of the family.

Elmet is not typically my ‘type’ of book - I tend to favour more character driven books - but Mozley writes so beautifully about the Yorkshire countryside that I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed reading this.

I received an advance review copy of Elmet from the publisher via Netgalley.