Coincidences

I had read two of Sebastian Faulks’ novels before this, Birdsong and Enderby, one of which I liked and one of which I did not. Snow Country, set mainly in Austria before, (briefly) during and after the First World War, falls into the former category. I liked it.

Anton, escaping from the family pork sausage business, aspires to be a journalist of renown. His lover is an older woman, Delphine, French, mysterious. His ambitions take him to Panama to report on the building of the canal, and immediately before the outbreak of war, to Paris, to report on a celebrity murder case. On his return to Austria, Delphine has disappeared without trace.

Lena, uneducated, poor, fatherless, her mother an alcoholic who has given away all her other children, starts life with every disadvantage. But she has aspirations, and improves her lot through determination and life experience. At a low point in her life in Vienna, she entertains men, with one of whom in a single encounter she feels an emotional link, immediately lost as this injured soul disappears from her life.

After the war, in a progressive and radical asylum in the Austrian mountains, Lena and Anton will meet again. Is the link Lena imagined to be reciprocated? Can Anton step beyond the loss of Delphine (and others from his life)? Will he discover what happened to Delphine? Can another fill her place?

Faulks’ novel is impressive in many ways, the emotional pull, the Hardyesque use of coincidence, both positive and negative, the personal drama set in a much wider stage, Austria before, during and after the war, the folly and callowness of youth, the early days of psychological treatment, the challenges, losses and occasional triumphs of the individual. The author balances the individual and the political in an ambitious narrative, achieving a satisfying conclusion.

I have read several books from this author and never failed to give them anything less than 5 stars, but I am afraid that on this occasion I couldn't quite manage that. The ending was faultless but I felt that there was a lot of time spent dwelling on psychology within the main framework of the book which I felt distracted from the storyline.

I was gripped into the story from the start and thought that I would have been completely engrossed, but as I say, there was too much psychology thrown in for my liking and I found myself thinking about skipping sections rather than reading through. I understand that some references were necessary but they were a little overpowering for me. Please don't let this discourage you from reading the book though, I am sure others will not have a problem with it.

Sebastian Faulks has produced twenty unique novels throughout the last three decades, so as soon as I heard about the forthcoming publication of ‘Snow Country’, I was keen to read his latest effort. Sensitive readers may well give up this novel after the first chapter, which starts with the harrowing, minute details of a surgical procedure, but believe me, it is well worth persevering and reading on after these gruesome details. Protagonists in this novel are Lena, who escapes her alcoholic household in Southern Austria at the beginning of the twentieth century, and Anton, son of a privileged family, who tries to make his luck in Vienna. Both young people meet at Schloss Seeblick sanatorium (a setting that will be familiar to readers who finished Faulks’ 2005 novel ‘Human Traces’). Lena has taken on a job as a maid here, and Anton, who has worked as reporter on the Eastern Front, is writing a piece about the sanatorium. With his fictionalised accounts of World War 1 and post-traumatic stress, Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, and accounts of societal inequalities, Faulks packs a lot into this novel. Well worth reading – and my thanks go to the publishers and NetGalley for the free ARC provided to me in return for this unbiased and honest review.

Whilst I did enjoy this book, Faulks is a great writer but I did feel that this had everything thrown at it. I was invested in the stories of Lena and Anton. It was rather confusing at times and I did find myself daydreaming. I hadn't realised that it was part of a trilogy and I'm not sure if reading Book 1 would help or not. Such a hugely traumatic time in history that seems to be repeating itself made for uneasy reading. I did like the ending but was worried for the future- maybe that's for book 3
My favourite book is The Girl At The Lion D'Or

I am sure that Mr Faulks is sick and tired of every reader comparing his subsequent work with "Birdsong" but I am afraid that is inevitable and whilst I enjoyed this book it did not captivate me as others of his have previously.

The story is complex, sometimes too so and also graphic at times. I also think it would have helped if I had read, "Human Traces", the previous novel in what will eventually be a trilogy however his descriptions of personal relationships are as lyrical and beautiful as ever.

I didn't enjoy this book, although I remember liking Human Traces, Faulks' previous book to which this is a sort of sequel, dealing with similar themes. I found the characters uninspiring - indeed, I found Rudolf and Anton, the two main male characters difficult to distinguish between and had to keep checking back to find out which one I was reading about. The writing was sometimes quite lyrical but then became didactic in dealing with the psychiatric background. The plot seemed fragmented and I found the ending unsatisfactorily tidy - I had the sense that Faulks had written more than one ending and couldn't choose between them. I think it's a huge challenge for authors to adequately convey the mental health issues of their characters and in this case I don't think it's been managed well.

‘Snow Country’ has a long section set in the psychiatry clinic Schloss Seeblick, introduced to us in Faulks’ 2004 novel, ‘Human Traces’ Once again, his research and attention to historical, social and scientific detail is painstaking and is woven into the fabric of this picture of 20th Century Austria up to the rise of the Nazis.
Several plot lines are engaging: the friendship of journalist Anton and Friedrich, who serve together in the trenches, the love of Anton for Delphine, the life of Lena, who like her mother, becomes a prostitute and has to live on her wits.
But the whole novel for me lacks coherence and conviction. There is simply too much going on, and the weight of history and science intrude into the stories of the characters.
Thank you to #NetGalley and #RandomHouseUk for my pre-release copy.

Another sure fire hit by one of my favourite authors. Although a companion to Human Traces, Snow Country is less about the analysis of the human mind, but continues the theme of the human spirit. Mainly covering the period from the First World War to the early 1930s, it is a story about love, struggle and survival during the difficult times in Austria following the loss of Empire and the rise of Fascism.

The stories of Lena and Anton are beautifully described as they journey through their pre-middle age lives encountering adversity in upbringing, the horrors of war and loss, but making a place for themselves in the world nevertheless.

Highly recommended and hoping that the third book in the trilogy follows quicker than the second!

Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks
I was delighted to be approved for this having previously read and loved Birdsong. This is part of a trilogy which I hadn’t realised, the first book being Human Traces. However they can be read as standalone books which is great.
Snow Country is set in-between the two world wars at a time of great political instability. It’s 1914 and we meet Anton Heideck the main character of this story. He arrives in Vienna with his best friend Friedrich to study and decides this is where he will stay and work as a journalist. He struggles initially to earn enough and so he pays his rent by tutoring the children of rich families. It is thus he meets and falls in love with Delphine who is also tutoring.
1927 Lena, a young girl lives with her drunken mother Carina. She meets Rudolf and moves with him to live in Vienna. Rudolf belongs to Rebirth a political group striving for change. Following the death of her mother, Lena finds herself working at the Schloss Seeblick sanatorium as a domestic. Anton arrives at the Schloss originally to write an article but finds himself in need of some help from Martha Midwinter the therapist who runs the hospital.
This book covers an interesting time in historical terms but I personally felt it was too focused on the political tensions of the era and less on the characters within. Faulks writes beautifully but this book for me was a struggle to finish. Many thanks to #NetGalley for this ARC.

Despite being told that this could be read as a stand-alone novel, I wonder if I missed something due to not having read the first of the trilogy. Having read Birdsong, one of the finest novels of our time, and other titles by Faulks, this did not quite live up to my high expectations.

The writing is precise and beautiful. The story in the first and final third is excellent, but I felt that the middle, though covering interesting themes of war, psychology, displacement, etc, was serving to pad out the narrative.

There were scenes that were unbearably moving, particularly Ferdinand's death, where Faulks was at his descriptive best, but much of Lena's time at the Schloss was uninteresting, leaving me waiting to see how the narrative would unfold.

Sebastian Faulks latest historical novel spans the years from 1903 to 1933, encompassing the political turbulence of the time, the war torn years of WW1 and the pre-war rise of Nazism and the right wing in Austria and Vienna. It examines this period of history, structured into 5 parts, through 3 people, through the lives of the Styrian journalist and author, Anton Heideck, who with his best friend, Friedrich, are students in Vienna, he has no intention of returning home to help run the family blood sausage company. As he struggles to establish himself in his chosen career, he takes on private tutoring which is how he meets the French Delphine Fourmentier, falling for her as the two embark on a passionate love affair that have them setting up home in the Vienna Woods. In 1914 he is reporting on the trial of Henriette Caillaux in Paris, hoping that war does not begin..

However, he is doomed to be disappointed, and upon his return home finds Delphine has gone. His harrowing experience of fighting in the war has him seriously injured. The horrors of what he sees, the huge losses that include friends, leaves him unsurprisingly with PTSD, finding it hard to come to terms with the loss of Delphine, exacerbated by not knowing whether she is alive or dead. Rudolf Plischke is a idealist young lawyer committed to the Rebirth party with its spiritual aspects. The impoverished Carinthian Lena meets Rudolf when she is 15 years old, illiterate, with a mother, Carina, who likes to drink, who has given away all the children she gave birth to, keeping only Lena. At Rudolf's urging, Lena moves to Vienna, only to find it an unforgiving place. She takes a menial post at the Schloss Seeblick, a place Anton has been sent to write an article evaluating the state of psychiatry and whether Austria has lost its pre-eminence to the newer psychotherapies utilised in the U.S.

Both Anton and Lena are to find help with their mental health issues from the strong and independent therapist, Martha Midwinter, the daughter of one of the founders of the Schloss, with Anton aided by learning what happened to Delphine, and Lena finally overcoming her sense of shame over her time in Vienna. Austrian psychiatry had moved on from the early mistakes of the influential Freud, his unhealthy and unhelpful obsession with hysteria, and it is Martha who embodies the forefront of the profession with her more compassionate, less judgemental talking therapies, and the hope it offers for a wide variety of prevaling mental health issues. They provide people with the potential of moving on and being able to live and love in a Europe and Austria that seem determined to be at war, damaging, killing and destroying the lives of countless millions in the run up to WW2.

This is a wonderfully insightful novel that covers key issues from this historical period, the impact of war, and the relationships between 3 people who live through it, and the evolution of psychiatry in its capacity to help, seen through Martha's work, even though she is not a qualified psychiatrist. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

A snapshot of life just before and after the first world war, centred on Vienna and the Austrian countryside. The protagonists’ lives, loves and emotional depth are explored with insight. The descriptive narrative is superb and delineates how the characters’ society and politics operated during the period. A rounded read.

2.5 stars

This book has genuinely left me feeling totally indifferent.
I can't remember the last time that happened.
There's nothing I liked,or indeed disliked about it.
I think had it not been by a writer who's past work I've enjoyed,I may have given up on it.
Struggling for anything else to say,that isn't already in the books blurb.

Sebastian Faulks has written another excellent book. It doesn't read like the second in a trilogy which I am glad about as I discovered that I DNF'd Human Traces in 2015! I shall have to revisit it. This book has a great cast of characters and is quite moving and emotional in places. I liked the character of Lena very much. It was an interesting journey through a desperate and depressing time in Austria and the other close countries involved in the Great War. I do hope that the third in the trilogy doesnt take as long to appear as this one did. With thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've read all Sebastian Faulks books and this one, without a doubt is a good read. For me, it doesn't quite come as close to the near-perfection of Birdsong, but it's a good story, well told.

Set in Austria, the events of Sebastian Faulks' latest novel, Snow Country, take place between 1906 and 1933 and it focuses on three main characters, whose lives intersect at various points over the decades, and culminate in Schloss Seeblick clinic in Austria.

(Interestingly, Snow Country is the second of an intended "trilogy" of linked novels, with Schloss Seeblick clinic providing the setting for Human Traces which was published in 2005. Each title can be read completely independently, and none are intended to be sequels, )

The three major protagonists are Lena, Rudolf and Anton.
Lena is not academically gifted, but she is a strong, independent woman who has had to be self-reliant from an early age, due to a childhood lived in poverty with her alcoholic single mother. She eventually gains employment as a maid at Schloss Seeblick Sanatorium which treats people suffering from a range of mental ill health conditions.
Rudolf is a few years older than Lena and is a somewhat idealistic student from a very wealthy background who later becomes a lawyer.
Anton is the oldest of the three characters and is a journalist and writer who lost the love of his life, Delphine, when the outbreak of the First World War separated them. He arrives at Schloss Seeblick having been commissioned by a magazine to write an article about the clinic's work.

The novel is very much character driven, with Faulks' three strong, interesting, yet diverse and contrasting figures at the heart of it., As the story unfolds, going back and forth between the decades, more and more of their respective stories and connections are pieced together.

Each of the central characters has suffered, and each has their own particular mental struggle or traumatic experience to come to terms with, which influences their reactions and behaviour.

Lena had to overcome loneliness and friendlessness, as well as real neglect and poverty, which at times caused her to do things and to behave in ways that would be frowned on by polite society, simply in order to survive. She had dreams of a life in Vienna but eventually had to abandon these hopes, and become a maid at the sanatorium where she eventually makes friends amongst the staff there.. She worries that her past may eventually catch up with her and lead to rejection, whilst also discovering that she could share her mother's weakness for drink.
Meanwhile, Rudolf may have had immense privilege, coming from a much more wealthy background than Lena, but he struggles greatly with his religious and political beliefs at a time of huge turmoil in Austria when the right wing is taking control and democracy is under threat. He becomes the member of a radical political group, putting himself in great danger in doing so.
Anton was deeply scarred - mentally and physically - by his time as a soldier during the First World War. He is clearly suffering some form of PTSD and a strong sense of guilt. He is still trying to come to terms with the loss of his relationship, and also the loss of his best friend during the war. Only when he comes to Schloss Seeblick, years later, does he realise how much he needs the benefits and the insights afforded by the talking therapy which is on offer there.

Can each of these 3 characters overcome their demons, and come to terms with the troubled past?

The mental turmoil and intensity is mirrored in the depiction of the brooding political tensions of the 1930s era, and the rise of extreme right wing fascism throughout Germany, Austria and Italy. The historical context is really well done, with the atmosphere of the novel pervaded by a real sense of unrest and the impending shadow about to descend across Europe. This, along with the prose of the novel with its evocative and beautiful descriptions is what we have come to expect from Sebastian Faulks over the years

Snow Country is a thoughtful and thought provoking read, with only one slight weakness. For me, the relationship between Lena and Anton, was a tad unconvincing and felt a little contrived, but this was the only small disappointment in an otherwise beautifully written and executed, very readable novel., which examines the many ways that the human mind, body and spirit can be challenged and the possibility of, if not a cure, finding an accommodation with the past - in whatever form that may be.

With thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, for the arc in return for an honest review

Although I would recommend all books from this author, this book was definitely on another level! I can not recommend this book enough

I really loved the premise of this book and the characters at the beginning, however, there was something off about the writing style that irked me for most of the novel. I think the characters were well written and developed and I enjoyed the general atmosphere of the book, I just wish I found myself more in love with the writing and pacing. Overall, a decent historical fiction.

I loved Birdsong and hoped that this would capture the same elements- war, love and human betrayal and loyalty. Apart from the brutal opening in a field operating ward, the story never gelled for me. As always, Faulks writes so well and atmospherically. The research is used with an easy touch. History and plot meld effortlessly. But eventually it’s emotion and character that carries stories forward: here, and it might only be for me, these did not hit with a punch.
Thank you to NG for the early read.

This book set mainly in Austria tells the story of two characters,Anton and Lena, moving from 1914 to 1933.It covers a range of topics, from the building of the Panama Canal to psychoanalysis and events leading up to the First and Second World Wars. I’ve read and enjoyed several books by Sebastian Faulks but I couldn’t really get involved in this one. The pace is slow and somehow I didn’t believe in the love story that develops between Anton and Lena.It’s the second is a trilogy so perhaps the third book will resolve matters .
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review which reflects my own opinion.