A teenage girl goes missing in Northern England while out walking on the moor with her family. They have been holidaying over New Year at a village, and the locals inevitably join in the search. But she cannot be found.
In the aftermath, once the police and media (but not the girl’s family) have left, feelings and emotions in the locals remain high – anxiety, fear, sympathy, curiosity, mistrust, and suspicion. McGregor gives snapshot observations of, and conversations between, the villagers. There are no introductions to these characters, they pop up in context then the narrative cuts away to another resident in another part of the village, or to the natural environment around it, which continues oblivious to the human drama.
The year progresses, marked by its traditional milestones – Spring, Easter, the well-dressing, an annual cricket match, midsummer, mischief night, the bonfire, Christmas, and back to New Year. In parallel, the natural world marks time – migrating birds returning, fox cubs are born, vegetation blooms, badgers mate, leaves fall, weather happens.
McGregor takes us through the next year in the same vein, then the next, and the subsequent ten or so in the same style. The centrality of the missing girl fades, but our familiarity and understanding of the village life grows. The fly on the wall point of view is surprisingly effective. We soon feel as involved in village life as is the publican, vicar, potter, newspaper editor, farmers, gamekeeper, school caretaker, and the rest. Then there are the children, contemporaries of the missing girl who, unlike her, grow up into young adults under our watch.
It is a beautifully
written, engrossing account of a village, and of lives lived in rhythm with the
beat of the natural world around it.
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