The Wood at Midwinter
by Susanna Clarke
Verdict: ✦✦✦✦✧
Very short but beautifully crafted inside and out, The Wood at Midwinter showcases a streamlined version of Clarke’s signature enchantments.
What is it about?
Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scot is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees-and she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods. One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst-and the path of her life is changed forever.
Our take:
At only 64 pages, this slim volume is about the length of a single footnote in Susanna Clarke’s wonderful magnum opus Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Here, her signature magic is dressed up with copious illustrations and large text. However, it’s a slight story that may take several re-readings and careful discussion to take full effect. However, there are lovely passages, and the book could be suitable for a classroom read-aloud with some careful preparation by the teacher in order to explain the more distant aspects of the story.
Perfect for:
Fans of Susanna Clarke and her books Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and Piranesi will be especially thrilled to dip back into her signature world, even if only very briefly. It’s also a beautifully-made little volume, and could be a good fit for upper middle-grade and teen readers, looking for modern fairytales, or rather, fairytales written in the modern day.
Conversation starters:
How does the wintry wood shape the story’s atmosphere and hint at deeper themes of mystery or transformation?
Where does the boundary between the natural and the supernatural begin to blur—and what does that suggest about the world Clarke has created?
In what ways does Clarke draw from traditional fairy tales, and how does she subvert or reinvent?
What does the story suggest about the cost of crossing into magical or forbidden spaces?
How do silence and suggestion function in the story, and what do they reveal about what remains hidden or unsaid?
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