What the Wind Knows
For this month’s book review, I chose What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon (© 2019). This thoughtful, beautifully written novel is historical fiction and a love story. If that sounds good, and you enjoy time travel stories, you’ll love this!
The journey begins with Anne Gallagher, a successful writer from New York in 2001, who travels to Ireland with her grandfather’s ashes. Alone and grieving, Anne searches for her grandfather’s birthplace and her family history. However, the Ireland where Anne eventually finds herself is in the year 1921, a boiling point in Ireland’s fight for independence. Amidst the confusion of Anne’s arrival in the distant past, her identity is confused with that of a local woman who went missing several years earlier. In the interest of her own safety, and until she can find a way home, Anne decides to go along with this false identity and the life that comes with it.
In many ways, this novel is a portrait of contrasts: the past and the future; love and hatred; loyalty and betrayal; the possible versus the impossible. Harmon’s writing style reflects this paring of opposites. Her lyrical prose and the excerpts from Yeats’ poetry create a fairytale atmosphere, so at home in the Irish setting — a land of myth and folklore. Meanwhile, her carefully described historical events set the pace of the plot and become road marks that ground the reader in reality. Within each chapter, the voice of Anne Gallagher alternates with the journal entries of Dr. Thomas Smith, further reflecting this careful balance.
The historical elements throughout this novel are well researched. For example, when Dr. Smith visits a terminally ill woman, the author uses the period appropriate word “consumption” and not our modern name for her illness, “tuberculosis.” This attention to historical detail gives a veracity to the doctor’s journal entries that earns the reader’s trust. Harmon includes details that authenticate the experience, but she doesn’t overburden the reader with so much description that the story loses its momentum. I particularly enjoyed Anne’s first shopping trip in 1921 to acquire clothes and necessities. Again, the details included make the telling real not tedious. For the aspiring novelist, there’s a lot to be learned here. What details will bore your reader? What details will create convincing settings and vivid characters? Above all, don’t be lazy — do your homework before you write! Harmon did her homework.
There are plot driven books, and there are character driven books. I believe this is the latter. This is a story about people and relationships. It’s the story of family and friends navigating through a tumultuous period in Ireland’s history. For me, the most memorable, resonating scenes in this novel are the “people moments.” That said, this book is a page-turner, and there’s little chance you’ll become bored while reading. Plot involving time travel can be tricky, but this time travel adventure is perfect — simple enough to understand, imaginative enough to keep the reader guessing. Harmon connects the fabric of her story seamlessly. All the pieces are laid out for us at the beginning, expertly sewn together in the body of the novel, and neatly tied and knotted at the conclusion. No stray threads.
There is a magic to good storytelling. Amy Harmon uses threads of plot that we are all familiar with — mistaken identity; destiny; true love; even the beloved time travel scenario — and she weaves them into something beautiful and unknown. Old stories become new, and we read eagerly, anxious to discover what happens next. I loved this book! It was my first Amy Harmon novel, but surely not my last.
“Let us go forth, the tellers of tales, and seize whatever prey the heart long for, and have no fear. Everything exists, everything is true, and the earth is only a little dust under our feet.” — W.B. Yeats
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This book review of What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon is based on the March 2019 paperback edition (© 2019 Amy Harmon) published by Lake Union Publishing (Seattle, WA, U.S.A.) and on the March 2019 unabridged audiobook edition (© 2019 Amy Harmon; ℗ 2018 Brilliance Publishing) published by Brilliance Audio and narrated by Saskia Maarleveld and Will Damron.