Book Review

Martha, Jack & Shanco

By Caryl Lewis

Published by Parthian

Lewis' novel focuses on the story of two elderly brothers and their sister who are bound by family circumstances to a life of hardship on a rural farm in south-west Wales.

Primeval in setting and content, this is a novel where the land itself with the beasts of the farm, and the raucous crows animate the narrative. Lewis brings life to the Welsh rural tradition of farms being passed from generation to generation, and the problems that this can cause. The siblings have had their home passed down to them, and as they cannot afford to sell up and split the profits, are tied to it indefinitely.

Lewis paints a picture of the siblings’ life on the farm perfectly. She throws us glimpses of the family’s history as we are let in to feel the love, the hate, the fear and the desperation surrounding them as they venture ever closer to the end of their lives.

Translator: Gwen Davies