2019 fantasy novella. The rumoured Wild Man of Greenhollow Wood has a
legend that has grown in the telling; but Tobias Finch just wants to
be left alone with his cat and the dryads. When the young folklorist
who's just bought the Hall comes to visit, that'll cause problems…
Just what Tobias is will be left for later discovery, and that
process is much of the meat of the book: he already knows, of course,
and I often find this sort of deliberate concealment from the reader
annoying in fiction, but the process of Henry's finding out is
enjoyable enough that I forgive the trope here. Everything starts with
the legends and the songs and the reason the village has a Spring
Fair, and goes back to what actually happened and the reason things
are now they way they are.
The prose is lovely. The length is perfect for the story. Altogether
it's rather splendid. (And of course I only read this because of
having enjoyed Tesh's later novels.)
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