The Rain Heron
by Robbie Arnott
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Pub Date 2 Jul 2020 | Archive Date 1 Jul 2020
Atlantic Books | Atlantic Fiction
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Description
A gorgeous, playful and casually brutal novel about war and ecological precarity, about the endurance of legends and the dark magic to be found in our natural world.
Ren lives alone on the remote frontier of a country devastated by a coup. High on the forested slopes, she survives by hunting and trading - and forgetting. But when a young soldier comes to the mountains in search of a legendary creature, Ren is inexorably drawn into an impossible mission. As their lives entwine, unravel and erupt - as myth merges with reality - both Ren and the soldier are forced to confront what they regret, what they love, and what they fear.
A vibrant homage to the natural world, bursting with beautiful landscapes and memorable characters, The Rain Heron is a beautifully told eco-fable about our fragile and dysfunctional relationships with the planet and with each other, the havoc we wreak and the price we pay.
PLEASE NOTE - THIS IS AN UNCORRECTED PROOF FILE SO THERE MAY BE SOME SPELLING AND GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES
Advance Praise
'A strange and joyous marvel' Richard Flanagan on Flames
'By the end, it felt less like Arnott was imbuing his local landscape with magic, and more that the landscape itself was lending his book some of its strange and special power' Guardian on Flames
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781838951269 |
| PRICE | £14.99 (GBP) |
Featured Reviews
Reviewer 630695
Wow! What an incredible book. Rather than review this book part of me would simply like to say read it, you won’t be disappointed. In an unspecified country Ren a farmer is driven off her land as a military coup rages. Zoe collects squid ink with her grandmother but catastrophe hits the local community and she joins the army. Zoe is tasked with finding a mythical rain heron for her superiors but only Ren can help her find it but she closely guards her secret. Does Ren reveal her secrets ... read this fantastic book to find out.
Philipa C, Reviewer
Beautiful. Evocative. Distressing - but only because we are the humans in awe of nature and yet have not learnt of our power to do such damage by destroying it.
This is a supremely well written literary novel by an Australian author that evokes a prose version of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's magical 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.'
Crossing between a naturalist guide to an eco fable Ren is the main character who is isolated yet under the spell of the heron bird who brings both hope and despair to those in whom it contacts.
The landscapes are wonderfully portrayed and human are the insignificant (but of course) deadly bystanders to the greatness of the natural world and all it has to offer.
So exceptionally rare to find something to read that differs from all else, no wonder this book has been nominated for so many awards. Will appeal to all generations and I hope will gather momentum in the UK to be read. It is a book of hope that we all need at the moment.
Reviewer 501400
Arnott's debut Flames was one of my surprise favourites of 2018, so I was excited to see he had a new novel coming out this year. And I'm pleased to report this one is even better.
Once again seamlessly melding literary fiction and magical realism, The Rain Heron transports the reader to a world at war, a world where the environment has been severely impacted as a result. The blurb describes the novel as an "eco-fable" which I'd agree with - the narrative follows two main characters, Ren and Zoe, and examines the relationship humans have with the natural world, and how our dependence on it is a blessing we too often take for granted -- and how our relentless manipulation of it will ultimately be to our detriment. The landscapes Arnott portrays are beautiful but devastated, and the combination of this with well-painted characters makes for a stunning novel.
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