A story that dances and sways like trees in the wind
“There was a time three thousand years gone you could have walked from one end of the country to the other never leaving the shadow of the trees. “The Green Man walks the wood,” he tried explaining. “But the wood remembers.― “
Emily Tesh, silver in the wood
“He knew it the same way the woodsman knew it, because he knew trees: but he also knew it with the knowledge of the Wild Man of Greenhallow, who felt every slow green beat of the forest’s heart.”
Emily Tesh, silver in the wood
About
There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads.
When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past—both the green magic of the woods, and the dark things that rest in its heart.
My Thoughts
This is a slow-burn kind of story. I once saw another reviewer describe it as having its own music, and that feels exactly right. It dances and sways to its own rhythm and prose. Much like the pulse of the forest itself, there is a deep thrumming that carries from page to page. It gives the narrative a rich atmospheric quality. The only real caveat is that this is a very specific kind of story. It has an almost misty quality, like viewing the world through a keyhole.
Tesh weaves a lovely, romantic, but restrained love story around the green man myth. Rather than leaving him as a figure buried in legend, she humanizes him through backstory. She shows how the green man experiences time, how he tries to hold on to his humanity without getting lost in the woods, and how he deals with dryads and his very fun cat, Pearl.
“Tobias had thought and thought about it, for four hundred years, until he’d reached the conclusion that Fabian must have loved him, after all, in his own way. That was the worst of it. The thing that woke now every year was always glad to see him.”
I do not think this kind of storytelling will appeal to everyone. But if you enjoy that fae-like quality in a story, you will likely enjoy this one. It is beautifully done.
