‘Run to the Western Shore’ by Tim Pears is the mesmeric story of Olwen and Quintus as they run together across Wales, living off the land, heading westwards to the sea. Britain AD72. Given by her father in marriage to the Roman governor Frontinus as part of a peace treaty, Olwen flees in the night. She awakens a slave boy and together they run. Both are nineteen years old.
Quintus is a translator, he has lived in many foreign lands but has no real home. He serves his Roman masters as they conquer one country after another. Olwen is part of tribal royalty. She leads Quintus through the countryside and seems at one with nature, wildlife, the land, the soil and its legends. The Welsh woodland, valleys, peaks and streams are beautifully described as they follow a meandering path designed to defeat their Roman pursuers. As they lope across the countryside they share stories of their lives, families and cultures. Quintus is unsure whether Olwen’s story are true, myth or a moment of fanciful imagination.
The writing style is simple and elegant. When a dark purple sky heralds a snow blizzard, ‘It was as if they were bottled inside some receptacle not much larger than themselves and a whimsical god was shaking it. Perhaps two such gods were tossing it to the other.’ Another day they near the River Wye, ‘Below them lay a wide green mead, its grass covered in white lace.’ Made by ‘the little people,’ Olwen says, a funeral shroud or a bridal veil. In fact they are cobwebs, white in the morning dew. The further they travel, Quintus becomes more aware of the ground beneath his feet, the birds that soar above, the joy of feeling free.
Only 152 pages, this is a memorable novella which is effortless to read as the pair day by day approach the western shore and their destiny. It is part history, part road trip, part nature essay, part love story. Beautifully written, it stayed with me for many days afterwards. Enchanting.
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Olwen goes on the run with Quintus a Roman slave. This is a riveting picture of life at the time of the Roman invasion. Written in splendid detail and it was fascinating to discover information about a world I was unfamiliar with. I would recommend. A quick, interesting read.

Beautifully written novella. I found it a very good read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Swift Press for a free e-arc and an honest opinion.

It was well written and pretty good. But nothing really happened and I found that I didn't reach for this book and a wasn't that invested in the story. I found that I didn't care about what happened to the main characters. It was written in a way that didn't make it hard to read even though I didn't really care what happened in the story.
This book just wasn't for me.

A cracking tale, authentically told.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a possible review.

Proud chieftan's daughter Olwen is made part of a peace settlement with the invading Roman forces. However Olwen has other thoughts and escapes from the camp taking slave Quintus with her. Quintus is from the other side of the empire and has an ear for languages, the two try to flee across Wales learning to survive in the countryside and reach the sea in the hope of finding passage abroad. But Olwen has unleashed the might of Roman revenge on herself and her people.
This is a quite short novel which packs a real punch. The story of the two escapees come lovers is simple enough but woven around this tale are two huge themes. The first one is the inheritance of the Welsh and the Celtic myths of their homeland which are presented as the story of Olwen's forebears and incorporate druidic culture. The second is the love of the Welsh countryside, described in detail and woven around the narrative.

Romans and Celts : love and savage pursuit through the mists of time.

Though beautifully written, with tender observations of the natural world, and interwoven stories from the Mabinogion, Pears’ imagined story about a Celtic chieftain’s daughter, and a young man from Ephesus, captured and enslaved by the Roman army, does not quite work as a narrative novel.

Set during the Roman occupation, during the time that Frontinus was the Roman governor of Britain, (AD 74 to 77) the two central figures connect and flee from Roman domination. Frontinus, insulted by the challenge to his dominion over the conquered Silures, one of the tribal confederations of ancient Britain, sends vengeance battalions in pursuit.

Inevitably, given the tenor of our present days, I found myself thinking of Putin, and of Wagner.

There is much in this short novel to really admire, the landscape and the ancient world, its social and religious setting, are beautifully done. The two central characters regale each other with stories of their past, and, in Olwen, Celtic princess’s case, her history and tradition are bound up with myth, legend and magic. She claims ancestry from characters whose tales come from The Mabinogion. This book, though a medieval text, traditionally came from 11 tales of love and treachery, which had been passed down, by oral tradition from Welsh bards.

The challenge, not fully overcome, is that somehow the two central characters, particularly Olwen, are not completely credible or defined. Sometimes (not often, but sometimes) the language itself seems a little jarring and modern. The interweaving of the tales told and the urgency of flight and pursuit, and the challenge of survival in an isolated landscape, somewhat war with each other

A story of a the daughter (Olwen) of a tribal chief running away from a forced marriage to a Roman dignitary in the first century AD.- set in Roman occupied Britain. Olwen persuades a Roman slave, Quintus, to accompany her as she flees Westward.. The imagined world of first century Britain is interesting but the plot is thin and the characterisation of Olwen is almost non-existent. A short read and entertaining enough to persevere to the end.

I couldn't get into this book, so it would be disingenuous to give it a rating above or below three stars. I'm certain that others might like it more, tough. It just wasn't for me.

Run to the Western Shore by Tim Pears. Is a beautifully told story of two people from different parts of the world who find themselves fated to be together through an opportunistic and serendipitous moment. The story is told in a very simple way. It feels like a road trip through ancient Britain with some lush descriptions of their journey.

It begins with Olwen, a chief's daughter given in marriage to a Roman. Olwen manages to escape with a slave called Quintus and their fates are in that moment entwined. The love tale follows their flight from the Roman encampment to the ocean. During their travels, they meet other people and Olwen tells Quintus stories of her ancestors and their attempted escape to a new life.

What stuck with me was the beautiful prose and the simple story told in a captivating way. Both characters are well-conceived and feel believable. The landscape and the wildlife also become a part of the story as well. All this together transports you to another place and time. A very absorbing reading experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Swift Press for a free e-arc and an honest opinion.

Although set in 1st century Britain, this story of two young people who form an instant bond despite being from different backgrounds, of different social status and from different warring sides, and who are forced to flee in order to be together is timeless. That's not to say there's no sense of the period because this is a Britain occupied by multiple tribes, some nomadic like Olwen's own tribe, who follow old ways that have been handed down through the generations.

Initially Olwen, with her knowledge of the wild countryside they pass through as they attempt to outrun their pursuers, takes the lead. She is in tune with nature in a way Quintus, born in the city of Ephesus, is not. She educates him in the ways of birds and animals. "I did not know there was so much to see in this world", he said. "Where my eyes would have passed over and noticed nothing. You have shown me, my love.'

As they shelter for the night, they share stories. Olwen recounts the legends associated with her ancestors whilst Quintus describes his life in Ephesus before he was enslaved. In a way, they are both enslaved because their value is weighed in terms of their use to others.

Gradually Quintus becomes less of a passenger, using the negotiation skills learned from his merchant father to get them out of a dangerous situation and introducing Olwen to things she's never encountered before, such as the notion that hundreds of thousands of people could live crowded together in a place and not kill one another.

There are wonderful descriptions of the Welsh landscape through which Olwen and Quintus travel. 'They climbed again above the treeline, where here and there dotted on the hillside odd trees grew like lonely sentinels sent out to survey the harsh landscape above.' And I loved this description of the dawning of a new day. 'The darkness drained upwards, off the horizon, and it was followed by colour, fierce pink paint daubed across the horizon by some hot impatient hand.'

Increasingly they become aware that such is the relentlessness and ruthlessness of their pursuers they risk bringing danger to those who seek to help them. This is demonstrated all too clearly in one particularly tragic episode.

Can you run forever? Like all great love stories, a happy ending is not guaranteed.

I loved Tim Pears' West Country trilogy - The Horseman, The Wanderers and The Redeemed - which were all either longlisted or shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Run to the Western Shore is another supremely well-crafted story that as well as being a moving tale about two young people is a love letter to the natural world.

A beautiful novella but i found myself struggling to read this. I pushed through but found myself zoning out. I think the writing style wasn't for me i'm afraid but can appreciate the content and what the author was looking to achieve - maybe i wasn't the right audience.

Run to the Western Shore is, on the surface, a love story about Quintus and Olwen and their ultimate fight for freedom. But more than that it is an exploration of an ancient land and the cultures, flora, and fauna that populate it. It lacks the suspense you'd expect from a story about two fugitives fleeing the mighty Romans. Instead, expect a gentle narrative that contrasts cultures and paints a vivid picture of nature, people, and beliefs from a different time.

An story about two underdogs, two slaves running away and searching for freedome. They're not heroes, they're common people involved in historical facts.
Well researched and well written.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This story follows a young couple - Quintus a slave and Olwen a Celtic princess - as they flee from their Roman captors across the Welsh countryside in 72AD.

Olwen and Quintus are interesting characters and I felt drawn to them both from the start. I loved learning about their history and the challenges they faced as the fled but they are also somewhat elusive and the reader doesn't come to know them well because the focus of this story is the journey and the landscape. It feels first and foremost a celebration of the land and I believe the author must love the area he describes a great deal to be able to breathe such life and beauty into it through his prose. I thought Tim Pears couldn't beat the West Country Trilogy but it seems I may be wrong! This was every bit as wonderful and I couldn't have enjoyed it more.

It's published on 2nd November.

Many thanks to @swiftpress and @netgalley for an early copy.

I really wanted to like this book, but alas it was not to be. The story is set in the period when Rome has invaded Britannia and is steadily pushing west bringing more tribes to heel by force or diplomacy. It follows a celtic princess who is married off to the Roman governor as part of a peace deal, she however has other ideas. Instead on her wedding night she flees the camp taking with her a slave translator. We then follow their journey across country to the river Severn and across into Wales. And that is pretty much it. There are a few nice descriptions of landscape but otherwise the journey is rather pointless and by the time we reached the end I was very glad to see the back of the two fugitives.

There is a reason why I am always nervous of historical-fiction, the somewhat flagrant disregard for basic facts, this book was no exception. Take for example our meeting with a lone druid and his apprentice who have a Totem pole! So we have imported indigenous North American practices into Gloucestershire where there is not a shred of evidence the native Britons has anything even equivalent. The town our interpreting slave came from didn't get subsumed into the Roman Empire until the following century and were hostile to Rome at the time, and the Roman governor never visited being too busy playing politics in Europe. Basic fact checking would have resolved these and many other issues.

An interesting premise poorly executed.

I love stories about nature, journeys and historical tales (especially Roman era) so this novella was perfect for me. It was delightfully lyrical about the natural world and the main characters interpretations of the world around her. A delight.

This book was archived suddenly with no notice. It is not due to be published until November so it was not at the top of my TBR. I now cannot send feedback.

Star rating is irrelevant as I have not read the book, but I cannot feedback without it
Sorry

Beautifully crafted and well written novel. I was drawn in from the first chapter and read it in two days flat. Hoping for more from this author soon.

Thank you NetGalley for the eArc copy of this book, for an honest review.

I really wanted to enjoy this book. It has a beautiful cover, which is what originally hooked me in. But I couldn't completely get immersed into the story, as it took too long for the story to get going. I appreciated the effort behind the descriptions, the setting the scene and the play by play of what was occurring and the characters thinking along the way. But it was an overkill for most parts and hence hard to connect with the story and follow along as a movie in my head, as I was too focused on reading what was being described.

The story has potential, I look forward to seeing what the author comes up with next!