One of the most imaginative and inventive novels I have read in the past five years is Susanna Clarke's Piranesi (2021). Winner of the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction, Clarke created a fantastical world in which Piranesi resides alone in a labyrinthine house, writing a journal of his days. Clarke's previous novel, published 17 years earlier, was the acclaimed Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell (2004).
Her latest work is The Wood at Midwinter (2024), a gorgeously illustrated short story, published as a slender hardcover. At just sixty pages, Clarke tells the story of Merowdis Scot, a nineteen-year-old mystical young woman. Merowdis is deeply connected to nature and can talk with animals. She is most at home in the woods, where her parents believe young ladies should not wander. Her supportive sister Ysolde drops her off one wintery morning at the wood gate, and leaves her to ramble with her dogs, Pretty and Amandier, and pet pig, Apple. As Merowdis and her pets walk they chat with the animals they meet along the way - a fox, raven, - and the wood itself. Then they meet a darkly clad figure who makes Merowdis a promise about her future.
The Wood at Midwinter is a very short story and can be read before your cup of tea goes cold! I was just starting to enjoy the world Clarke created when the story quickly came to an end. Indeed, I felt rather flat once the story finished, as if I had only read a teaser for a larger, more engrossing work.
