I suppose I almost believed in the magic because I was almost in love... And later, after everything that happened, we held hands around the tree to wish, and I begged and begged the fairies to take all the obstacles away so that Robin and I could be together from that moment. Begging? The fairies? What the f... planet was I on?
When is a memory not a memory but a figment of imagination?
One summer day of 1986 a young couple stand by the Faerie tree on the banks of the river Hamble, where Robin brings Izzie. The tree is festooned with ribbons, necklaces and small toys, left by those who want their wishes granted. Children also leave coins and messages to the fairies.
"I tried to remember the first time I'd been here and to see the tree through Izzie's eyes. The oak stood on a rise above the path; not too tall or wide but graceful and straight, its trunk covered in what I can only describe as offerings...
"Why do people do this?" Izzie asked.
I winked at her. "To say thank you to the fairies."
"For what?"
"For making their wishes come true, I guess..."
Robin and Izzie are in love, and hopeful at that moment in time. A few hours later, their world will collapse. Robin will come home to find his disabled mother dead from an overdose of painkillers. Everything has changed.
He's been his Mum's carer for years, and he is ridden with guilt that he left his Mum to die.
After the funeral, realising that being in the house, full of memories, wouldn't bring him peace - "everywhere I turned were reminders of guilt" - Robin packs his rucksack, takes some camping gear and leaves his home, never to return.
Izzie is heartbroken, but eventually marries a musician and has a daughter, Claire. She pushes Robin in the back of her mind: "I couldn't bear to think he was put there, somewhere, living a life without me. Or not living one. Kind of suspended in a place of booze and darkness where I hadn't wanted to follow and even if I had, I hadn't been able to reach. It was far better to pretend that nothing had ever happened".
Twenty years after the visit to the Faerie Tree Izzie accidentally stumbles upon Robin.
Only now he is a tramp, smelly, with straggly hair.
Izzie is recently widowed and depressed. Her daughter is worried about her mother drowning her sorrows in the bottle. Claire is kind and empathetic, but also quite wilful and stubborn.
Izzie visits Robin in hospital where he is taken with a chest infection. He has nowhere to go after he leaves the hospital, and Izzie offers him to come to stay with them.
Slowly, Robin is convalescing and regaining his strength. He and Izzie have heart-to-heart conversations about what they've been doing all these years. And they reminisce about their time together all those years ago, only their memories differ. Quite dramatically.
Whose memory is right? and who is imagining things?
Robin and Izzie both struggle with their inner demons, one by running away, the other by finding escape in a bottle. They are both fragile and flawed. You sympathise with both of them, you also get exasperated with both. At times I wanted to shout at them.
When years ago our elder son was diagnosed with autism, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was really in a bad place, not trusting myself to walk over the bridges and not jumping down. I knew I needed help, and though it didn't happen overnight, I was able to have counselling, which partially helped. I remember telling the psychiatrist, that I felt ashamed that I wasn't coping. I told her my great grandma survived the revolution, two world wars, the murder of her husband during the Stalinist purging, loss of her home, she lived under the Nazi occupation, but managed to stay strong. Then why would I, having a loving family and a relatively good life, living in a safe environment, feel so low. She told me there was no shame in feeling fragile and depressed.
At the time I didn't even confide in my own family and friends, thinking I did not want to burden them with my problems, when there were so many more significant issues around.
But I also had my anchor, my child who needed me. And who ultimately brought me back to the real world.
So, I can relate to both the main protagonists of this novel. They deserve empathy and understanding, even when they appear at their most manipulative. They are "twisted and tangled beyond all recognition", in the words of Robin, they are human beings who are coping with grief in their own way and deserve second chances.
The Faerie Tree is the symbol of strength and hope, and as such is another protagonist of the book.
The folklore element, though essential as the thread bringing together the past and the present, is not taking the narrative into the supernatural world.
The Faerie Tree gives a remarkable insight into depression and mental health issues. This honest, edgy and reflective novel explores the possibility of hope even in the most dark of times.
I want to finish this review with the extract from Matt Haig's Reasons to Stay Alive:
"Mental health problems are not:
A bandwagon.
Fashionable.
A fad.
A celebrity trend.
A result of growing awareness of mental health problems.
Always easy to talk about.
The same as they always were".
Potential triggers: death, depression/mental health.
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| Faerie tree (author's photo) |
Purchase Link
http://viewbook.at/TheFaerieTree
Mant thanks to Jane Cable, Matador and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book.
This review is a blog tour stop, you can check out the other reviews:
Author Bio:
Jane Cable writes romantic fiction with the over-riding theme that the past is never dead. She published her first two books independently (the multi-award winning The Cheesemaker's House and The Faerie Tree) and is now signed by Sapere Books. Two years ago she moved to Cornwall to concentrate on her writing full-time, but struggles a little in such a beautiful location. Luckily she's discovered the joys of the plot walk.
Social Media Links:
Twitter: @JaneCable
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/romanticsuspencenovels
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