No Season but the Summer
by Matilda Leyser
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Pub Date 13 Apr 2023 | Archive Date 7 Apr 2023
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Description
Spring and summer are my mother’s time, autumn and winter are my husband’s. What is left for me?
Persephone spends six months of the year under the ground with her husband, king of the dead, and six months on earth with her mother, goddess of the harvest. It has been this way for nine thousand years, since the deal was struck. But when she resurfaces this spring, something is different. Rains lash the land, crops grow out of season or not at all, there are people trying to build a road through the woods, and her mother does not seem able to stop them. The natural world is changing rapidly and even the gods have lost control.
While Demeter tries to regain her powers and fend off her daughter’s husband, who wants to drag his queen back underground for good, Persephone finally gets a taste of freedom, joining a group of protestors. Used to blinking up at the world from below, as she looks down on the earth for the very first time from the treetops with activist Snow, Persephone realises that there are choices she can make for herself. But what will these choices mean for her mother, her husband, and for the new shoots of life inside her?
No Season but the Summer takes a classic myth and turns it on its head, asking what will happen when our oldest stories fail us, when all the rules have changed. It is, above all, a book about choice.
Advance Praise
‘What a wonderful writer. Matilda Leyser’s work is precise, poetic, hard-edged, rhythmical. It seethes with life, and feels both ancient and brand new.’
– David Almond, author of Skellig
‘Matilda Leyser’s novel takes the eternal polarities — love and hate, life and death, summer and winter, possibility and impossibility — and brings them crashing together in a tumultuous story of gods living alongside humanity, mother-daughter love and loss, and a glimmer of hope despite it all. In No Season but the Summer, our world is still dying, but it is putting up a hell of a fight as it does so, reminding us that we can fight too, and that fighting for our lives might start with listening to the earth.’
– Stella Duffy, author of Theodora
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781911344919 |
| PRICE | £16.99 (GBP) |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Courtney C, Reviewer
I really loved No Season but the Summer!
Persephone and Hades was always one of my favourite myths so I was really excited to read this book!
And I'm so I happy I did as I absolutely loved it!
It was really written and I really enjoyed that it was told from both Persephones and Demeters perspective!
I highly recommend this book especially if you are looking for a unique Greek mythology retelling!
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
Lauren A, Reviewer
No Season but the Summer by Matilda Leyser
Publication 13 April 2023
No Season but the Summer is quite unlike any Greek Mythology retelling / reworking I've ever read and I thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful book. Matilda has crafted a really fresh and relevant take on a classic tale.
Persephone and Hades is a favourite myth of mine and lends itself wonderfully to the themes of climate change, enviromental issues, nature and personal choice. Persephone is the godess of Spring yet also destruction. Conflict features strongly - light versus dark, summer versus winter, hate versus love, No Season but the Summer is a tale of choices that we are all faced with.
Told from Demeters and Persephones perspective, both past and present - from nine thousand years ago to today. There's beautiful imagery throughout the story which centres on Persephone joining a environmental protest group after returning back above earth to find the world she's always known changing, and not in a good way. She discovers freedom for herself for the first time in nine thousand years - after all "Spring and summer are my Mothers time, autumn and winter are my husband's. What is left for me?" But if she takes for herself, what does this mean for them?
I really enjoyed reading about ancient gods and goddesses brought to life in the modern day, and the tie in with the important issues that are facing our world today, as well as some of the personal conflicts we can find ourselves battling.
Matilda writes in an engaging and sensitive manner, almost lyrical at times and the story is well plotted and paced.
Readers with an interest in Mythology, nature, enviromental concerns and family relationships will love this truly unique story, and I would throughly recommend this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and Scribe for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.
Hayley R, Educator
The story of Hades and Persephone is one of my favourite Greek myths so I was excited to see how the author would bring the deities into the 21st Century. There are many themes present but the author mainly focuses on climate change and the complexities of mother-daughter relationships. I found it a little hard to distinguish between past and present at times but I loved the authors descriptions and the contrast of Persephone’s time with Demeter and Hades. The image of Zeus at a festival (one I have been to many moons ago!) had me chuckling! This story will stay with me and I’d like to read more from this author.
Thank you to Netgalley, Scribe and Matilda Leyser for this ARC.
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