Set in 1843, Ivar the sole occupant of a remote Scottish Island finds an unconscious man washed up on the beach. He carries this man home and nurses him back to health, all the unknowing that this man in John Ferguson who has been sent to evict him from the island, the only home he has ever know.

The tenderness within this book is something else, set against the harsh island landscape the two men form a gentle relationship. A relationship of deep understanding and great respect despite a lack of common language.

I adored this book, I was getting Claire Keegan vibes throughout and I really loved that this was a story about men, so many of my recent reads have focused on women.

This was a beautiful read!
I am always drawn towards books dealing with the Highland Clearances, and while this book has those tragic events as its backdrop, it's not really what it's about.
John Ferguson is newly moved to the breakaway Free Church of Scotland, and as such finds himself without a Church or Parish or home. In order to provide for himself and his wife Mary he takes on an assignment from a landowner wishing to remove his last remaining tenant from a remote island off the shore of Orkney.

What ensues was un unexpected story. A misadventure leads John to be rescued and fall under the care of Ivar, the man he was sent to evict. Ivar speaks an almost obsolete dialect of old Norn and at first they struggle to understand one another. As John heals and time progresses he learns Ivar's language and learns also about the life and landscape surrounding him. He is called to question his errand and his relationship with Ivar, and when his wife Mary comes to rescue him, the ending is far from expected.

I loved everything about this book - the characters, the setting, the language, the relationships, the sense of place. It is beautifully and subtly written. The concept of the title "Clear" becomes less about the Clearances and more about clarity of comprehension, purpose and identity. It asks the characters to realise things about their lives, what's important to them and how much they're willing to compromise or sacrifice for what they love.

The exploration of language was something I particularly enjoyed. Ivar's language served the purpose of iterating the nuances of the natural world - clouds, waves, weather, subtle moments of time.....things not so easily perceived when one's language and environment do not have them as a focus.

Of course there is the undercurrent of the Clearances and the Great Disruption of the Church of Scotland. John's faith and underlying Presbyterian belief in providence cause him some conflict when faced with a person and an environment in which they have no hold.

I'm not articulating my feelings very successfully, but this was a beautiful read. The insight into the characters, the descriptions of place, the process of figuring out a language - all were portrayed so stunningly. I loved it and would heartily recommend!

At a mere 160 pages, Clear is a novella — a slow burn of a tale with only the barest hint of a story arc. The writing is lyrical at times, yet the point of the story — a churchman tasked with removing the last inhabitant from a fictional island, somewhere between Shetland and Norway, to make room for sheep — receives remarkably little mention. Any reader not well-versed on the history of the Scottish Clearances might well miss the darker nuances of the narrative. The island-dweller, Ivar, believes his visitor is a representative of his factor come to collect rent he owes. The unexpected twist and ending turns this novel / novella into something else entirely. It's a surprise that is at once clever on the author's part, yet also rather misleading in terms of the book being promoted as a 'Clearances' novel. Sadly, it appears to be part of a new trend of book marketing going awry. Whether this is a deliberate ploy by publishers or simply carelessness is hard to tell.

Many thanks to the publishers and to Netgalley for the ARC..

Clear by Carys Davies is the type of historical fiction that tries hard to be bleak, and the result is that i find myself at a remove from the dreariness of it all.

What a moving and unusual book. I have a particular interest in the clearances as my great great grandfather was removed and was a first settler in the Falklands. I find it an emotive subject at many levels and Clear, although a novella, provides real insight into both the issue and the human side of this dreadful period.

There’s such a strong sense of place, isolation and loneliness. But mixed with that are feelings of genuine hope, warmth and care. A bond in the most unlikely circumstances. I thought this might be a little bleak and downhearted, it it turns out to be one of the most uplifting stories I’ve read. It’s spare in style but it’s a book that will remain with me for a long time.

This is an interesting read. A minister is sent to a remote island to remove the one remaining resident.
The clearances were something that did happen in the Scottish Islands and I wasn't aware of much of the history.
This is a nice introduction to the history of the area, giving some information.
It feels quite historical and although it's very short there is plenty there.
This would be great for a book group. It's short but there is so much there.

When well executed, there is something incredibly intimate about the novella format that never fails to cast a spell over me; a spell in which time is suspended and all external distractions vanquished. And so it was with this shimmeringly tender tale of serendipity and human connection, set against the background of two watershed events in Scottish history.

Clear is the story of two men, whose paths cross in the unlikeliest of circumstances, on a remote island in the North Sea, somewhere between Scotland and Norway. It is 1843 and impoverished minister John Ferguson, desperate for any job that will give him funds to help set up his new Free Church, has been sent there to evict the island’s lone tenant, Ivar, so that the land can be turned over to the more profitable business of sheep farming.

What follows is a moving and beautifully observed study of loneliness, love and friendship, and the visceral need of humankind to connect and communicate. It captivated me from start to finish.

Davies’ prose is sparse and nuanced, yet utterly mesmerizing in its ability to paint landscapes and characters in the most intimate detail. Ivar, especially, stirred a deep empathy in me, as he slowly transformed from a man of sadness and solitude into one sparkling with color and light.

The narrative is full of little surprises and unexpected turns as well as moments of humor and, in one notable scene, unbridled joy. With an ending that is gently provocative, it borders on perfection.

Clear is a brief, contained story, but one that carries with it big questions about the impact of tumultuous events on ordinary people; in this instance the Great Disruption in the Scottish Church, which saw one-third of its ministers break away to form the new Free Church of Scotland, and the contemporaneous Highland Clearances, where whole communities of rural poor were evicted from their homes to make way for large-scale farming.

I was left wondering what paths their lives might have taken had John and Ivar not been swept up in these tides of change.

This is another little gem by Carys Davies. If you love Claire Keegan or The Colony by Audrey Magee, you will enjoy this one.

The setting is a remote Scottish island, around 1840, with just one, sympathetic inhabitant: Ivar. It is the time of the 'Scottish Clearances' and it falls on the priest John Ferguson to undertake the long voyage north and find Ivar to bring him the news that he is being removed from his home. Except things don't go as planned, as John makes an ugly fall and it's Ivar who finds and cures John. A friendship develops and in-between we get flashbacks on both men's background.

If there is one point of criticism it is perhaps the ending: everything was beautifully set up to culminate in a grand finale, which didn't really come.

But overall very good and another strong contender for the Booker longlist.

Clear is set on a remote Scottish island during the Highland Clearances, a period in which much of the rural population of the Scottish Highlands and Islands was forcibly evicted from the land to make way for the much more profitable large scale grazing of sheep.

John Ferguson accepts the task of travelling to the island to evict (‘clear’) its sole inhabitant, Ivar, who has lived alone there for many years. For John the task is borne out of financial necessity in order to earn the funds to establish a new church.

His wife, Mary, has doubts about the morality of the mission, mindful of the human impact of what John has been tasked to do. ‘Into her mind a picture came of this vast emptying-out – a long grey and never-ending procession of tiny figures snaking their way like a river through the country. She saw them moving away with quiet resignation, leading animals and small children, carrying tools and furniture and differently sized bundles, and when at last they disappeared she saw the low houses they’d left behind, roofless hearths open to the rain and the wind and the ghosts of the departed while sheep nosed between the stonework, quietly grazing’. She also worries for John’s safety, prompting her to embark on her own journey. I loved the little details the author gives us about her life, meaning she never feels like a character on the periphery.

When John is injured shortly after reaching the island and rendered unconscious, Ivar takes in what is a complete stranger and tends to him. There are moments of great intimacy as Ivar, who seems to sleep only rarely, keeps watch over John and cares for his bodily needs. Close proximity born out of necessity becomes companionship as John recovers his bodily strength, and then develops into something more for both men. John, though, is plagued with guilt that Ivar does not know his true reason for coming to the island, a mission that will uproot Ivar from everything he has known.

I loved the role that language plays in the book. Initially, John and Ivar cannot communicate; Ivar speaks little if no English and John knows nothing of the language Ivar speaks. (The author has based this on Norn, a long extinct language once spoken on the islands of Orkney and Shetland.) They have to communicate in gestures until, little by little, John begins to learn some words. He marvels at how, in Ivar’s language, a word can often have more than one meaning. It’s an immensely descriptive language with many words for different weather conditions, for example.

The writing is simply beautiful, especially the descriptions of the island. ‘There were days when the mist fell like a cloak on to the island’s shoulders; when rain fell in big, coarse drops, melting the soil into a soft brown soup; when a cold, light wind blew over the ground, making the bogs shiver.’

The author resists the temptation to provide an unambiguous resolution to the story, instead leaving the reader to imagine the future lives of the three characters.

Clear is a tender love story, a hymn to a lost way of life and to the raw beauty of the natural world.

I really enjoy Carys Davies, writing especially West and her short stories, so I was eager to read a historical novel by her set in Scotland. I really enjoyed Clear.

Davies can conjure up such a vivid sense of place without being overly descriptive. It's a while since I've read a novel where I've been so thoroughly transported to a different time and place and that's a great achievement for such a short book.

I very much enjoyed spending time with the characters and seeing how the events in the novel changed them. They all have their unique quirks and traits. She has a great knack of getting to the heart of what makes her characters tick and the seeming small events in their lives which actually have a big impact on them.

Whilst I don't want to give anything away, I loved the ending!

This weekend on a train to London and back I read Carys Davies’ latest book Clear which is set on the Scottish island of Orkney. It’s a very fluid read and I flew through it, immersed in the setting and the characters themselves. Whilst it’s not a novel in which there is a lot of drama, it doesn’t mean it’s not a novel full of emotion, which it is. It has definitely made me want to read more on the Scottish clearings and I’m certainly going to look at her previous books based on this.

1843. On a remote Scottish island, Ivar, the sole occupant, leads a life of quiet isolation until the day he finds a man unconscious on the beach below the cliffs. The newcomer is John Ferguson, an impoverished church minister sent to evict Ivar and turn the island into grazing land for sheep. Unaware of the stranger's intentions, Ivar takes him into his home, and in spite of the two men having no common language, a fragile bond begins to form between them. Meanwhile on the mainland, John's wife Mary anxiously awaits news of his mission.

Against the rugged backdrop of this faraway spot beyond Shetland, Carys Davies's intimate drama unfolds with tension and tenderness: a touching and crystalline study of ordinary people buffeted by history and a powerful exploration of the distances and connections between us. Perfectly structured and surprising at every turn, Clear is a marvel of storytelling, an exquisite short novel by a master of the form.

My thoughts ..

Kind and gentle Ivor meets John. Following John’s dramatic fall off a cliff edge on the remote island Ivor finds him and cares for him.
Years of solitude Ivor has had only the landscape and his animals for company, there is also a language barrier. John and Ivor share words learning words for
Objects and scenery in each other’s native tongue.
The more that John gets to know Ivor he does not want to evict him from the Island.
Mary John’s wife wants to go and bring him home and so her adventure also begins.
This was a delightful novella under 200 pages wonderfully written with lovely imagery and great characters.

This is an unusual but compelling story. Set during the Scottish Clearances, a minister of the newly established Free Church, finding himself short of money, accepts a temporary assignment to sail to a remote Shetland island, to remove the last remaining inhabitant. Of course, things don’t go exactly as planned!

I loved the dual narrative, the author switching seamlessly between characters. Despite the lack of dialogue, as the characters didn’t speak the same language, the characters were both brought vividly to life.

I was surprised at how readily the minister accepted such a dubious assignment, considering his reasons for leaving the Church of Scotland, and think he would (or should) have had ethical and moral reasons for not taking the job.

I enjoyed the story, especially the historical context and read it in one sitting, however I found the ending to be rather abrupt.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am actually left a little speechless by this book. I picked it up as a quicker read after a few behemoths, and ended up being taken into this richly atmospheric, tangible story, that speaks profoundly to the nature of isolation and loneliness.

With stunningly simple prose, Davies gets really deep into the heart of these characters, and somehow has created a deeply evocative relationship between two men who don’t speak the same language, and whose desires are at drastic opposition to each other.

It is quite short, and there’s perhaps room for growth, but I think that this book achieves so much, while using so little, and it will linger with me for a while.

With thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

This novella is set in 1843, against the historical background of the foundation of the New Free Church of Scotland and the Clearances, where wealthy landowners realised there was more money to be made from using their land for pasture than farming and set about evicting their tenant farmers using ruthless methods.

Having left his living as a Protestant minister in order to join the Free Church, John Ferguson finds himself impoverished and unable to provide for his new wife. He takes a job requiring him to travel to a remote Shetland island in order to evict the last remaining inhabitant, Ivar, who stubbornly clings to the old ways scraping a meagre living off the land and is the last speaker of the island's native language. When John meets with an accident soon after his arrival, he is rescued and nursed back to health by an unsuspecting Ivar. As a bond forms between the two men, John finds it harder and harder to reveal the real reason for his presence on the island, and not only because the two men do not have a language in common.

Carys Davies' writing does not quite achieve the stark poignancy of Claire Keegan's in Small Things Like These, say, but it nevertheless conveys a great deal in its relatively few pages. She paints a vivid picture of a harsh landscape and way of living, of loneliness so dep it hadn't even been recognised and of connection, and of betrayal and its resolution. Much is made of the all-but-dead language as John sets about learning it in order to communicate with Ivar, and in so doing comes to look at his surroundings with new eyes - it's an ingenious way of bringing a landscape and climate to life. There is much to appreciate in this little book.

A powerful novella that explores isolation, extinct language, exploitation, marriage and love.

It seems there are quite a few novels set on isolated islands that explore the exploitation of those who are socially weaker. Of these The Colony by Magee ranks highest, followed by O'Connor's Whalefall and then Clear by Davies. All three very worthy novels. I actually think it would be very interesting to read and discuss them in collaboration and hope to see these authors meet up on a panel at some point.

Clear is a dense novel with layers of meaning to unpack and some, quite often, profound writing.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

Davies achieves so much in this short, beautifully crafted novel. At its heart is the contradiction – in making the moral choice to leave the established church for the fledgeling Church of Scotland, financial necessity leads John to take on the decidedly immoral job of informing Ivar of his eviction from his remote island home as part of the Highland Clearances. However, things don’t go exactly to plan.

There is humour and compassion in the mutual misunderstandings of John and Ivar, and a subversion of the Robinson Crusoe trope – it is Ivar who teaches John his language, not the other way round. Mary too is a wonderful character, with her awkward assertiveness and quiet self-reliance. I enjoyed the ending, which didn’t follow the predictable path.
*
Copy from NetGalley

Wow, this novel absolutely blew me away. It was short in length but oh my there was so much within its pages.
Jeff John Ferguson, driven by a need for money to support himself and his wife Mary is deposited on a remote Scottish island to impart the news that its only resident, Ivar must leave.
No problem you would think, but what if John had an accident and found himself in Ivar’s tumble down cottage being nursed back to health? Language begins as a barrier before hand signals, the odd common words form a broken but efficient communication between the two. John involves himself in Ivar’s simple existence, a new -found respect and even friendship ensues.
On the mainland all Mary can think of is her husband, their marriage, and ultimately the return of her husband and mounts her own rescue mission.
The voices of the characters are all so different, but wonderful, their feeling, emotions laid bare within the pages. Davies writing is nothing but stunningly beautiful and poignant, entwined with a story of belonging, of loneliness, of love and all its varying forms.
No review would ever do this small but exquisite novel justice, you simply have to read it for yourself.

When a BookTuber predicted that Carys Davies’ new novel "Clear" might be longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, I wondered if I might be able to get an ARC of the novel. In addition, a friend had mentioned that they loved Davies’ most recent publication, West, so when I saw that "Clear" was available to read, I didn’t hesitate to request it. I was overjoyed and grateful when Granta approved my request, and things only got better from there!

I started reading "Clear" almost as soon as I was approved for the ARC, but I started reading the book when I was tired and distracted, so I put it aside and started it again the next day…And then I didn’t stop until I was finished.

Davies’ novel is set on a remote island north of Scotland in the 1840s during two pivotal events in the protagonist’s story: the Scottish (Highland) Clearances and the Great Disruption (in the Scottish church when some ministers left to form the Free Church). The protagonist, John Ferguson, is a minister with the Free Church, and his wife is Mary. To raise funds for his new church, John agrees to travel to a remote island and “remove” the remaining resident living there. However, after an accident, John Ferguson finds himself in the care of and indebted to his saviour: Ivar…The remaining inhabitant. What ensues is the story of the relationship between the two men. John Ferguson and Ivar learn about one another and themselves and despite the problems they encounter resulting from the language barrier, a closeness forms.

I love Davies’ writing. She masterfully created the setting, environment, and ambiance. I was lost in her nature writing! And while there’s not a lot of dialogue, it doesn’t matter because it wasn’t necessary—especially since John Ferguson and Ivar don’t speak the same language. I loved that the two didn’t need to share a language to live together peacefully and contentedly. And the moments when the two attempt to communicate, the humour, patience, and frustration felt natural to the situation.

The story is not heavy on plot, but at its core, the story appears to be about self-discovery and focuses on character development. John, Ivar, and Mary all learn about who they are, what they do and don’t want, and acknowledge their fears; I feel that’s why Mary—when speaking with John at the end of the story—proposes an alternative life with Ivar.

Like another reviewer, I feel it would have been nice to learn more about Mary’s relationship with her friend Alice. But perhaps that’s a different story (please, Ms Davies!)? Otherwise, I have nothing negative to say except that I wish I had more time with John Ferguson and Ivar, which is surprising since I’m not a fan of romance, but I just wanted to stay with them a bit longer. Of course, that’s not a real complaint.

If you’re a fan of historical fiction; Davies’ writing; romance that isn’t heavy-handed; reading about nature, wildlife, and historical events; and enjoy reading objectively good writing, then this could be for you!

Many thanks to Granta Publications and NetGalley for an ARC of Carys Davies’ new novel "Clear" in exchange for an honest review. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to read such a fantastic story!

The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies is one of my favourite collections of short stories; so I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to read Clear, her new novella, which manages to encompass so much in terms of history, language and human connection.

From an historical point of view the story is set in 1843 and covers the Great Disruption in the Scottish church, when a number of ministers rebelled against the church and broke away to form the Free Church. In the characters of John Ferguson and his wife Mary we see the struggles and prejudices faced by these ministers and how hope and faith were at times the only thing keeping them going.

In addition the book is set during the time of The Clearances, where rural communities were forcibly removed from their homes to make way for crops, cattle and sheep. Ivar represents these communities, who were powerless against their landlords and faced the upheaval of leaving everything they’d ever known for an uncertain future.

The landscape plays an important part in this story and it is beautifully observed and described. You can feel the power and strength of the wind and the sea. The dramatic landscape emphasises Ivar’s isolated existence and the helplessness of his situation.

Although Ivar and John do not have a common language when they meet, John takes on the task of learning Ivar’s language. Carys Davies explains in the notes at the end of the book that this language is based on Norn, an extinct language which was spoken on the islands of Shetland and Orkney. I found this fascinating and it will certainly interest readers who have an interest in the history and development of language.

Although it tackles a period in history which caused suffering to many, the book advocates the power of human connection and hope for the future. As Mary reflects sometimes ‘terrible surprises…led to great and unanticipated happiness.’