A Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman

A Year of Marvellous Ways is such a unique and different read that I still find myself thinking about it and contemplating the power of one’s imagination to change an ordinary life into something magical. It’s no wonder that this book by Winman is described as unforgettable, captivating and, certainly to me, something of a departure from her international bestseller When God was a Rabbit. That said, Winman’s imaginative storytelling is immediately recognisable and always enjoyable.

I have been infatuated with the beauty and quirkiness of Cornwall for a while now, and we’d in fact planned a visit there in July 2020. Needless to say, a certain virus put paid to that idea, along with many other travel plans. But reading this book gave me great comfort and made me fall even more in love and made me even more determined to visit this magical, ancient part of England.

Set in a remote Cornish creek, this is the story about a year in the life of Marvellous Ways who is eighty-nine years old. She lives alone in her caravan near her crumbling boathouse on the banks of a river. Marvellous, the daughter of a mermaid and a renowned, if eccentric, midwife, has lived here in the same caravan all her life. She goes about her daily routine of fishing, swimming, and brewing her sloe gin as she had always done, all the while waiting for something or someone. Indeed, she spends hours on a mooring stone by the river with her telescope, searching – not sure for what, but knows that she will recognise it when she sees it.

Drake is a young soldier who had just returned from fighting in World War II with no one waiting for him back home. The aftershock of the war leaves him spiralling and he only returns from France to England – and to Cornwall specifically after a year – to fulfil a dying man’s wish. Broken in body and spirit, he finally suffers a complete breakdown and washes up in Marvellous's creek where the old woman finds him, takes him in and nurses him back to life.

A Year of Marvellous Ways is a glorious read. It is beautifully scribed with a life-affirming message and is, above all, about the power of storytelling. I love the stories of Marvellous’s relationship with the sea, of her mermaid mother, and of a village that had been neglected and broken by the war and which is only now, ever so slowly, coming back to life. It is in essence a confirmation of the joys of togetherness and love, and of course the healing powers of sloe gin.

I was hypnotised and seduced and could not put it down until the last page. This is one that will surely stand the test of time.