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5 stars

short review for busy readers: a highly detailed “historical�� novel that explores the stresses and problems of normal people in the 2nd Covid lockdown in November 2020. Told in a light stream of conscious style from the POVs of 4 people. Simple plot, but highly engaging and relatable. Slightly slow read, but wonderfully rendered.

in detail:
It’s strange to term a novel about an event only a few years past as “historical,�� but The Fell does such an excellent job of delving into a highly specific time and place (November 2020, rural England/Peak District) that it really does feel like a piece of historical fiction.

Kate is a single mum who has made a number of blunders in her life. Currently, she and her early teen son are supposed to be in two week quarantine due to a possible exposure to Covid. But Kate is an outdoorsy person who will go stir crazy if cooped up for long, and one night she decides to take an hour’s long hike up into the hills. Who would notice?

It’s Kate’s breaking of quarantine and the possible effects of what happens to her in the hills that provides the ethical and moral backbone of the novel.

Told in a light stream-of-consciousness style, we see the events of that night from the perspective of Kate and three other people involved in her night hike. This style makes it a little challenging to get into the story at first, but once in, the choice of such a style is a good one for conveying the stream of doubts, fears, resentment, cruelty, broken promises and boredom the pandemic brought with it.

And just like in the British novella Grief Is the Thing with Feathers: A Novel, we have a raven acting as a therapist for Kate as she grapples with everything that’s gone wrong in her life.

The Fell is a highly accomplished semi-literary work that documents recent history in a way that will find readers and fans decades from now. "That's exactly how it was," they will say.

Well worth the read.