Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield6/25/2023 ![]() ![]() Is she the kidnapped daughter of a well-off local couple taken two years ago, who rejoice at her potential return? Or is she the not-exactly-dear daughter of a well-liked local farmer’s oldest son, whose reaction to the girl is far more ambiguous? And what does the parson’s housekeeper, who calls the girl by the name of her long-dead sister, have to do with it all? The girl turns out to be alive-though the question of whether she was actually dead for a time remains open most of the novel-and questions about her true identity are the engine that propels the rest of the book’s action, as well its characters’ attendant stories. In the early pages of the book, these stories are their own versions of what happens one cold, dark night when a mud- and blood-soaked man staggers into the Swan carrying the body of a little girl. The Swan at Radcot, where the story starts, is introduced as the inn “where you went for storytelling,” and there are constant callbacks throughout the novel to the inn’s storytellers and the stories they tell. ![]() ![]() It’s a corker of a story, full of moody elegance, as a good Gothic should be. In Diane Setterfield’s Once Upon a River, you won’t forget that you’re reading a story-its language and framework are almost constantly calling attention to the story’s story-ness-but you probably won’t mind, either. We get swept up and lose track, believing on some level that it’s true. As readers, we know all novels are fiction, but sometimes we forget. ![]()
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