Run to the Western Shore by Tim Pears

 Run to the Western Shore

 by Tim Pears

Run to the Western Shore by Tim Pears

 was published on 2nd November 2023 by Swift Press.

My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy to review and to 

Random Book Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour.

Synopsis

RUN TO THE WESTERN SHORE is a beautifully written, evocative historical novel of quest and struggle - an ode to the land and Welsh folklore and a love story about the reconciliation of opposites in times of need. Set in Britain in AD 72, Run to the Western Shore tells the story of a young Roman slave, Quintus, and Owen, daughter of the chief of a local tribe. Quintus, long exiled from his people, has travelled great odysseys in the retinue of a powerful man, and although he is a citizen of nowhere, he is also a man of reason who is fluent in many languages. Owen, imperious tribal royalty, is rooted in her native land (Wales) - a volatile warrior, fiercely attached to the natural world. Promised to a powerful Roman by her father as part of a peace treaty, Owen flees during the night, taking Quintus with her. Hunted by an army, the two make their way across the country, living off the land, heading for the western shore…

My Review

What a beautifully descriptive story, simply told in such a way as to allow the reader the opportunity to explore their own thoughts on the nature around us and the importance of taking time to appreciate and read from it. Some of us appreciate it , some of us ignore it and it has been the same all the way throughout time.

We get to feel the expanse of the sky, the ground underfoot and how they change as the seasons and the land around us changes. We realise the simplicity of what we actually need to survive, rather than what we think we need to survive, all told through this beautiful story of Olwen and Quintus , set in AD 72,  and their path through life whilst they are on the run.

The joy of being in the woods, the wonder of watching a dawn and how to trap and ensnare a beaver are all told in words of respect and reverence for what nature is and what it provides.

It is a long time since I have read such a poignantly descriptive story that gave me a sense of calm and wonder whilst I turned the pages , even though some aspects are gruesome.  It is not a long book in length, though it is rich in what it gives the reader in its 181 pages and I for one prefer this , compared to a weighty tome that takes the reader nowhere easily.

For me this a wonderful 5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 and I am going to look out for me to read from Tim Pears.

About the Author

TIM PEARS is a much-admired, prize-winning writer whose prose has been likened to Marquez, Faulkner and Hardy. His recent West Country Trilogy was a critic’s favourite. Born in 1956, Tim grew up in Devon and left school at sixteen. He worked in a wide variety of jobs: welder, librarian, reporter, archaeological worker, fruit picker, psychiatric nurse, groundsman in a caravan park, painter & decorator, and night porter in Devon, Wales, France, Norfolk and Oxford.

Throughout this time he was always writing, and later making short films. He completed a Directing course at the National Film and TV School, graduating in the same month that his first novel, In the Place of Fallen Leaves, was published, in 1993. In the Place of Fallen Leaves was awarded the Hawthornden Prize and the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award. Tim’s second novel, In a Land of Plenty, was made into a ten-part drama series for the BBC broadcast in 2001. Other novels include, A Revolution of the Sun, Wake Up, Blenheim Orchard, Landed and Disputed Land. Landed was given the MJA Open Book Award and was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. 

All of these novels were chronicles of our time, exploring moral challenges as they are expressed in the dynamics and politics of relationships and family life. In the Light of Morning was a departure, set in Yugoslavia in the Second World War. Tim then embarked on his most ambitious work, a trilogy of novels (The Horseman, The Wanderers and The Redeemed) set before, during and in the aftermath of the First World War. Tim is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. 

He lives in Oxford, and is married to a psychoanalyst. He and his wife have two children. Apart from family life, he enjoys urban rambling and walking the dog (his first listener and a harsh critic) and rural foraging. Along with cinema, sport has been Tim’s other passion. He was a third-rate footballer and mediocre tennis player, and remains a poor ping-pong player. He continues to be an avid spectator of the ‘amazing human invention that is the game of football’