Now We Shall Be Entirely Free: The Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2019

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There were a couple of twists in the plot that I did not expect, and that is always good…it’s not good if the overall plot and ending is predictable in a novel of 410 pages.

Now We Shall Be Entirely Free opens in 1809, shortly after the Spanish campaign of the Peninsular war. The pacing of his story is excellent; his style is crisp; his apprehension of pain is arresting; and his ability to show people trembling at the edge of unreason is compelling. I still eye the Booker list, of course, but I am increasingly interested in the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, for one, which plays more predictably to my own preference for both good scene setting (yay, exposition! In Jura, in a boarding house, they sat out two days of the storm, the weather dementing against the windows so that they dared not sit too close for fear the glass would come in.The journey north gives Miller a chance to add some authenticating historical detail, most of which he does well, in a dry but observant style.

The first is Lacroix’s long journey north from his house in Somerset via Bristol, the home of his sister Lucy, to the Hebrides.Whenever he leaves home, whether on campaign or on the road, he seems to be fleeced of the majority of his possessions. There might have been a couple of places that my interest was flagging but it was a page each at best–so not an issue! Familiar to the flight-pursuit trope, love redeems the fleeing good guy and we’re left with an hopeful but unresolved ending.