A beautifully written novel about the effects of war. Set during the Napoleonic wars in Spain, it follows a young English gentleman, John Lacroix, as he is pursued by one of his countryman and a Spaniard who are seeking vengeance. for an act of brutality on a Spanish village.

The prose is outstanding, everything is beautifully described. As a result the story is quite slow moving and it takes time to get into it but there is something almost hypnotic about it which draws you in.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book is set in the Napoleonic wars in Spain and follows the fate of a young soldier John Lacroix recovering from battle with a secret about what happened in a Spanish village. He is warned by a fellow officer that the army are coming to get him back to fight again so he takes off to Scotland.

This is quite a slow moving tale but very enjoyable. The descriptions of the places and the historical detail are excellent. I loved the growing relationship between John and Emily who he meets in the Hebrides.

<blockquote>the thought that had touched him several times since coming back from Spain, that we are not private beings and cannot hide things inside ourselves. Everything is present, everything in view for those who know how to look. [loc 3776]</blockquote>

1809: a soldier, near death, is brought to a house in Somerset by a postilion, and nursed slowly back to health by the housekeeper. The soldier's name is John Lacroix, and he has survived the retreat to Corunna. In body, at least: he has become deaf, and his feet are raw, but he is otherwise largely undamaged physically. His mind is another matter, and it's clear that something terrible happened to him during his last days in Spain. When a fellow officer visits to recall him to his regiment, he flees -- first to Bristol, then north to the Hebrides.

On his trail are two hunters: an English corporal, Calley, who has testified against Lacroix, and a Spanish officer, Medina, who represents the victims of an atrocity perpetrated by English soldiers in the small Spanish village of Morales. The two have been enjoined to 'do what your country requires of you'. Calley, it transpires, is not the kind of fellow you would wish to encounter on such an errand: but perhaps the violence which he applies to every obstacle is justified, or at least explicable. Perhaps.

Somewhere in the Hebrides (the particular island is never named) Lacroix meets the Fender siblings, who are members of a community of free thinkers. Emily, the least eccentric of the three, is losing her sight: Lacroix finds in her a kindred spirit, and begins to understand his own freedom in contrast to her 'small independence'. But will love, given or received, help him to confront the terrible things in his past?

Miller's narrative is slow, and seldom straightforward. We see Lacroix and Calley through the eyes of many observers: their perceptions don't always equate with our own. The clues about what happened at Morales are scattered throughout the novel: I'm not sure they're ever stitched into a comprehensive account, except in the reader's mind. Instead, we see how thoroughly the experience has permeated Lacroix: seeing gas-lamps lit, he imagines "if there had been lights like these that night in Spain ..."

This is a novel full of resonant images: 'lyrical and full of light', I have written, though perhaps that's only the ending. Complex philosophies are presented simply, as when a Somerset farmer says 'the man standing still knows just as much and will have his boots less worn. The world will pass through him'. Or Lacroix, reflecting that 'everything in view for those who know how to look'. Which could be a metaphor for <i>Now We Shall Be Entirely Free</i>: it's all there if you look.

I'd recently read <a href="http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2018/08/201850-false-lights-k-j-whittaker.html"><i>False Lights</i></a>, which also features an officer tormented by memories of war. <i>Now We Shall Be Entirely Free</i> takes a different approach, both with the original horror and the man's reaction to it. Miller's novel feels more vivid as an exploration of PTSD (perhaps because the sufferer is the central character here, and the theme is escape rather than redemption), but this is not to disparage <i>False Lights</i>. These are two very different novels which happen to be set in the same period. They are maps of different territories.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a free ARC in exchange for this honest review!

Having recently gotten into Literary Fiction, I was intrigued to read one of distinguished writer Andrew Miller's books. So when this came up, I jumped at the chance. It didn't take long before I was transfixed by the luscious, poetic prose, it had me practically mesmerised and soon I was wholly invested in the story. As a massive fan of Haruki Murakami, the intricate descriptions are very much something I enjoy, so, naturally, I absolutely fell in love with this book. Essentially, the novel explores culpability within the context and confines of the story.

I appreciated the inclusion of the Hebrides, but having holidayed on various of those stunning islands for many years, I couldn't understand the lack of detail and almost sparseness of the prose in those parts. If you have ever been to any of the islands you'll know what I mean when I say it's impossible not to be affected by the beauty all around. I wonder whether Miller has actually been to any of them, if he in fact has visited them, I feel he's missed a trick as the scenery is perfect for an evocative story such as this and could provide vivid imagery to the reader.

This is a powerful, moving and magnificent novel, that certainly deserves to be read by a wide audience. I have already purchased his previous books which will take pride of place on my favourite bookshelf. Be prepared to be hypnotised!

Many thanks to Sceptre for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Beautifully written as ever with this author .. drawn to a soldier fed up and more with war, who witnessed an atrocity he is being hunted down in order to silence. , it's a leisurely immersion in Napoleonic war times. Admirable and absorbing, although I did have trouble accepting this sadistic corporal would track him so relentlessly!! But a majestic piece of writing!

For me, this was a gentle meandering story (in spite of some thorny parts) written with much care for the language and with many a splendid turn of phrase - "They waited, then felt the water tighten around the keel and the ship begin to work, to live, to make the air around them live". In essence, this is a story of two lost people and their journey towards each other. I was sorry when the last page was reached.

This is literary novel and so it doesn't really follow the same rules that apply to other writers and their work.

John Lacroix returns home from the Peninsular war in 1809 more dead than alive and is nursed back to health by his housekeeper. Once he feels better he decides to travel, to the Scottish islands, escaping the army who want him back, and something inside him that he cannot reconcile.

Meanwhile, in Lisbon, an inquest is investigating an atrocity meted out on the inhabitants of a small Spanish village during the retreat from Spain back to Portugal. An English officer was seen by a soldier, Calley, and he is sent by his superiors to avenge the deaths of the Spanish, justice seen to be done. Accompanied by the dapper Medina, a Spanish officer, they travel to England in search of their quarry.

Will they catch Lacroix as he hides on a Hebridean island? Can Lacroix truly serve his country better by dying for it than living? And is Lacroix as innocent as we want to believe?

A great plot, rather reminiscent of one I read in a Sharpe novel, so no surprise that it works very well, and language that is sumptuous and a veritable feast. The metaphors and similes are fresh and new, delightful. And there is a real attention to detail.

But that lovely language and detail slows the narrative. This is not a page-turner of a novel. It takes time to appreciate, and that somewhat lessens the tension and the vitality of the characters who feel just a little soft around the edges, smoothed, and saps some of the urgency from the chase.

It is a lovely book, for what it is, but the unsuspecting will approach this expecting something more dramatic. If you want an accessible piece of literary fiction, something less brutal than a Bernard Cornwell, this would be a good place to start.

This starts with a carriage driver struggling in the rain and mud to take his passenger home. He’s not even sure if he is still alive.

John Lacroix is brought to his family home barely conscious, stinking and wounded. Nell the housekeeper of the empty house, washes him, clothes him and feeds him gently, nursing him back to health

John doesn’t talk about the war in Spain and is clearly troubled, he then has a visitor, Wood, who tells him he is needed back in Spain once he has recovered sufficiently.

He decides to travel to Scotland purportedly to recover his health and collect local folk songs as did his Father before him. However, on his trail are an English Corporal and a Spanish Cavalry officer with orders to kill...

I loved Andrew Miller's style of writing, it’s so descriptive bringing an atmosphere to the story and the believable characters, landscapes and the atrocities of war.

This is a book about war, dishonesty, and the suffering both cause. It is also about triumph and kindness and devotion and guilt.

Andrew Miller has written a beautiful, evocative and powerful piece of historical fiction with a great thriller which will keep you reading late into the night.

I would like to thank the Author/the Publishers/NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review

This book centres on John Lacroix, a young man who joined the army to help defeat the forces of Napoleon. He left as an officer, in all his finery, thinking war would be an adventure – he returns a broken man, virtually in rags. Although he regains his physical health he is haunted by his memories of war and its brutalities – we are not told at this point what these events are – and when a fellow officer calls to remind him of his duty to rejoin his regiment he instead flees his home. He travels northwards, from his Somerset home, via his sister’s home in Bristol and on to Glasgow. He eventually arrives on a Hebridean island, on the back of a cow, and falls in with a family of free-thinkers. A future of island life, wild landscape and haunting local music beckons but Lacroix’s past is following him in the form of Calley, an amoral and vicious corporal sent by a shadowy but powerful figure in the British Peninsular Army to kill him. The war and, in particular, a shameful incident in the village of Morales during the army’s retreat to Corunna, will not let Lacroix, or any of those near to him, escape unscathed.

This book gives us a blend of a remote, bleak but beautiful Scottish island landscape and the brutality of war. Lacroix carries this horror within him, deeply affected by his own small part in the conflict, but it also stalks him in the form of Calley (and Medina, the Spanish officer accompanying him). The fact that these horrors can touch the lives of civilians, both in Spain and hundreds of miles away in Scotland, makes us aware that no-one is immune to their effects. This is tempered by the bleak grandeur of the Scottish landscape and also the developing relationship between Lacroix and Emily, one of the group of siblings he ends up living with on the islands. War is seen as an inevitable factor of most lives but love is also possible.

A dark and stormy night, a coach and horses struggling through the blackness, a sick, mysterious passenger and a large, country house where a lone housekeeper recognises the invalid.
How could I not be immediately drawn in? A great, classic, captivating start to a book despite its use of familiar tropes.
It is 1809 and Captain John Lacroix has been brought home injured after fighting in Spain. There he has seen and done things which have severely traumatised him. When soldiers from his old regiment call to see if he is ready to return to Spain, he decides to flee to somewhere safe where he cannot be found.
But unknown to him, he is, more dangerously, being sought by other parties with violent intentions.
Beautifully written, with such well-drawn characters and a cracking plot. I savoured every word and absolutely loved it.
Many thanks to netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review.

John Lacroix is delivered to his family home wounded and barely conscious, to be nursed back to health by his housekeeper. Now John is a different man struggling to come to terms with what he has seen and done in the Peninsular war, so he decides to travel to the highlands of Scotland to try to escape the hellish memories, but on his trail are an English Corporal and a Spanish Cavalry officer with orders to kill...
A beautifully written Historical fiction that will have you on the edge of your seat.

This book is quite atmospheric and looks at a different stratum of society compared to the usual early Recency novels. In Calley you have one of the most obnoxious characters I have come across in any novel. The story shows what it was like to be working class at this time, even down to the risks of going about your proper business with the possibility of being press-ganged. There were some lose ends which I found a bit annoying but otherwise an interesting read.

My first Andrew Miller novel, and it was a pretty great one.

Now We Shall Be Entirely Free is a historical novel, but it is also many other things - a war novel, a romance, an adventure story, a cat and mouse chase, a story of friendship. Above all it is a suspenseful story about one man running away from his past.

We meet our protagonist, John Lacroix, on a rainy night in 1809. John has been brought home from Spain and the Peninsular War in a bad way, and is left with his housekeeper in rural Somerset. But we soon learn John has a past he needs to escape. Still unwell, but with no choice but to leave home and travel across the country in order to escape his past, we follow John travel from home to Bristol, Glasgow, and finally the Hebrides. But the questions still remain: what happened in Spain and Portugal? Why are the erratic English corporal and Spanish officer on his tail? And will things work out for John, or will the war catch up with him? As mentioned above, this isn't just the story of escaping the ravages of war. John meets a whole host of memorable characters on the way - my particular favourites were the residents of the Hebrides.

I don't read a whole lot of historical fiction, but something about the plot description of this one really appealed to me, and I'm so glad I got to read this memorable story. Miller's prose is stunning, and I found the story completely absorbing - the descriptions of Glasgow in the 1800s were some of the most striking for me. Recommended to fans of historical fiction and even to sceptics like myself - I think anyone who enjoys a story well-told will find something to love here.

I really struggled with this book and several times was on the point of giving up. It begins promisingly enough, with a sick man dumped at home from a coach. Who is he? What’s happened to him? He is John Lacroix, he’s been fighting in the Peninsula War and something pretty awful obviously happened to him out there. The next chapter follows events in Lisbon, where an enquiry is being held into an atrocity carried out by British troops. Psychopathic Corporal Calley is sent to England to kill the officer who was present, in order to appease the allies. Is it Lacroix?

Meanwhile, as Lacroix recovers, he decides not to go back to the war but instead to travel as far north as he can go. He sets off, still unwell, not realising that pursuers are on his tail. The chase should be suspenseful and exciting (the book is billed as a thriller) but the story is told very slowly and with many unnecessary diversions. My problem was that I couldn’t care whether Lacroix lived or died. There is some historical interest in the book but it quite failed to grip me and is probably twice as long as it need have been.

A beautifully written tale of the traumas of the Napoleonic wars in Spain. John Lacroix returns from fighting a broken man and seeks solitude in music in the Outer Hebrides but his past will not allow him to settle. A gentle tale of love and war that will pull at your heart strings.

Andrew Miller’s latest work, ‘Now We Shall Be Entirely Free’, is currently my novel of the year. From the first pages we are drawn in to the story of infantryman John Lacroix, sometimes Lovell, convalescing at his family home in Somerset in 1809 after miraculously surviving the chaos of Corunna after the army’s retreat in northern Spain during the Peninsular war. Knowing that he is expected to return to soldiering, and finding the idea impossible, John travels to Glasgow by sea via Bristol and then on to the Hebrides where he is taken in by the local people and makes friends with other outsiders – Cornelius, Jane and Emily – who are English bohemian siblings living without much care for the usual social conventions.
In contrast to these gentle, damaged people, Miller has also created a poisonous villain in the shape of Corporal Calley who has been instructed to track and kill Lacroix because the latter has witnessed the sacking of a Spanish village. Calley has regard for no one; it is almost as if he is programmed to catch and kill and so he accepts the invitation to assassinate Lacroix with alacrity, accompanied by a Spanish military witness, Medina. Thus begins the chase north.
This is a beautifully written and often very moving novel. Miller is as adept at conjuring up the morning light at sea as he is the murky Glaswegian streets; Emily’s plain-speaking and honest conversation rings as true as Calley’s vicious views and curses. The world of John Lacroix, abroad and at home, absorbs the reader in such a way that we can smell the peat fires, the hospital soap and the cat-scented attic room.
‘Now We Shall Be Entirely Free’ is difficult to define. The detailed and convincing depiction of early nineteenth century domestic, commercial, medical and military life is utterly convincing, so the label ‘historical’ is certainly apt. It’s also a superb thriller. There is no doubt that Calley is capable of cold-blooded murder yet is it certain that the gentle, sensitive musician John is a sitting target? And running through the novel, made all the more touching when contrasted with what war makes men do, is an exploration of the innate decency of most people. Even those seemingly broken - blind, deaf, physically disabled – show that the strength of the human spirit, a belief in the power of love and a desire to remain true to all that is good is what will make us ‘entirely free’.
My thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This is an absolute treasure of a book. The descriptions are so vivid: of the clothes, the weather, peoples' faces, the sounds, you feel as if you are there. It tells the story of Lacroix, a captain, home from the Napoleonic war. Events of the war are about to catch up with him. A lot of the book is about his travels North to the islands of Scotland and the family he stays with. The ending is quite tense, but entirely fitting. I loved everything about this book.

It may be cliched to say a book is a real page turner, but I unashamedly state that I read well into the small hours of the night (and then some) in order to discover the ending of this captivating story with its fascinating variety of characters, locations and lives. Andrew Miller's novel 'Now We Shall Be Entirely Free' is a rewarding read which has been carefully researched for the historical details of the era of Napoleonic wars..

With settings in England, Spain, Portugal and Scotland, the author creates vivid descriptions of the places, events and people in this early 19th century world, keeping the reader curious about the outcomes and unfolding of journeys, meetings, departures and reunions, and the influence of the developing relationships and the underlying motivations. He doesn't shy away from the harsh realities of war, of life in those times, yet handles them with a sensitivity and careful style allowing the readers to acknowledge stark facts whilst weaving in a gentler thread of humanity, compassion, genuine friendship and love.

There is a 'filmic' quality to the story, and to me it is reminiscent of 'Cloud Atlas' (David Mitchell) and one of the rare novels I would be eager to read again soon to make sure I have captured the essence and properly understood the plot.

Miller's writing takes you immediately back to the period and his description sometimes has me thinking of Thomas Hardy's style, although much shorter passages. The suspense of his plot begins at the opening and, although slower moving for a while, the reader is inevitably involved in the game of chase that ensues. Miller's characters are each quite different but strong in their own ways and the main character's sufferings and developing relationships heightened my involvement.
During my reading of the opening passages I felt some readers may be put off by Miller's style but that those who crave historical fiction would definitely appreciate this. A definite recommendation for lovers of historical fiction with a hint of mystery and intrigue.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton) for this copy, in exchange for an honest review.

The 2018 Man Booker long list contains a book in which a man returns from war and struggles to come to terms with what he saw and did (The Long Take). It also includes a work of historical fiction (Washington Black). Andrew Miller’s new novel combines these two ideas and it initially seems a travesty that Edugyan’s book sits on the Man Booker list and Miller’s has been passed over.

We meet John Lacroix as he returns from the Peninsula War (1809), a man physically and mentally damaged by what has happened. He is nursed back to health by his housekeeper and sets off for Scotland. Meanwhile, we meet Calley who is a soldier in Portugal giving evidence about a war atrocity in a village. Calley names the officer in charge of the men committing the atrocity and he is charged with finding and assassinating him with a Spanish soldier accompanying him to be a witness and avoid any duplicity by the British. We are not immediately told, but we assume the officer in Lacroix.

The story proceeds in alternating chapters following Lacroix as he travels and Calley as he pursues. Lacroix heads to the Hebrides where he finds the possibility of love. Calley goes around beating people up if he thinks they might know where his quarry is. Having spent many happy holidays on Hebridean islands, I was frustrated for a while by not knowing on which island Lacroix lands because I wanted to be able to picture it and not have it as a generic Scottish island. Also, there is no real sense of the passage of time. So, when both parallel stories take their characters to the same location, you have to initially assume they are there at the same time because there is no way to know that, but the book would make little sense if it were not the case.

The central tension for the reader is that Lacroix, despite his taciturn nature and his obvious war damage, seems like a decent man. He’s a 19th century version of Walker from The Long Take. It is impossible, really, not to start to believe in him and want him to recover and be happy. Can he really be the man behind the atrocity that Calley is seeking and will ruthlessly kill when he finds him?

But the book itself is strangely unconvincing. There are several factual or contextual errors:

1. The second sentence in the book makes reference to the left hand horse of a pair in tandem and this simply makes no sense.
2. The island on which Lacroix settles for a while is initially reported as having no trees, then it has a few trees, then it is treeless.
3. At one point, people sit round a dining table discussing John Clare’s poetry. But this is 1809 and Clare was not published until 1820.
4. I have holidayed in the Hebrides for several years and the writing set there is generic and characterless: it is hard to believe Miller has been there and it feels like “The Hebrides” is a convenient way of saying “somewhere a long way away”.
5. I am not at all sure about referring to the river in Liverpool as the River Mercy. It sounds like an old name for the river, but I can’t find any evidence it is an actual old name for the river.

That said, there is some beautiful writing in the book.

"He drank a glass of wine. He didn’t want anything stronger. He was experimenting with clarity, with time in its ordinary clothes."

And

"…rain in columns of faint shadow drifted landwards."

Is the beautiful writing enough to overcome the lack of conviction? For this reader, no. For many readers, probably yes. Once I noticed some things wrong, I found myself spending more time fact checking than enjoying the story which was a shame because nearly all the facts are OK if you look into them. But once a seed of doubt has been sown, it is hard for a book to recover.

This was my first experience of Miller. He can certainly write beautiful prose. It’s a shame that, for this reader, the attention to detail let the book down.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton who made this book available to the first 100 requestors via NetGalley which his how I got my copy.