This is an absolute treasure of a book. The descriptions are so vivid: of the clothes, the weather, peoples' faces, the sounds, you feel as if you are there. It tells the story of Lacroix, a captain, home from the Napoleonic war. Events of the war are about to catch up with him. A lot of the book is about his travels North to the islands of Scotland and the family he stays with. The ending is quite tense, but entirely fitting. I loved everything about this book.

It may be cliched to say a book is a real page turner, but I unashamedly state that I read well into the small hours of the night (and then some) in order to discover the ending of this captivating story with its fascinating variety of characters, locations and lives. Andrew Miller's novel 'Now We Shall Be Entirely Free' is a rewarding read which has been carefully researched for the historical details of the era of Napoleonic wars..

With settings in England, Spain, Portugal and Scotland, the author creates vivid descriptions of the places, events and people in this early 19th century world, keeping the reader curious about the outcomes and unfolding of journeys, meetings, departures and reunions, and the influence of the developing relationships and the underlying motivations. He doesn't shy away from the harsh realities of war, of life in those times, yet handles them with a sensitivity and careful style allowing the readers to acknowledge stark facts whilst weaving in a gentler thread of humanity, compassion, genuine friendship and love.

There is a 'filmic' quality to the story, and to me it is reminiscent of 'Cloud Atlas' (David Mitchell) and one of the rare novels I would be eager to read again soon to make sure I have captured the essence and properly understood the plot.

Miller's writing takes you immediately back to the period and his description sometimes has me thinking of Thomas Hardy's style, although much shorter passages. The suspense of his plot begins at the opening and, although slower moving for a while, the reader is inevitably involved in the game of chase that ensues. Miller's characters are each quite different but strong in their own ways and the main character's sufferings and developing relationships heightened my involvement.
During my reading of the opening passages I felt some readers may be put off by Miller's style but that those who crave historical fiction would definitely appreciate this. A definite recommendation for lovers of historical fiction with a hint of mystery and intrigue.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton) for this copy, in exchange for an honest review.

The 2018 Man Booker long list contains a book in which a man returns from war and struggles to come to terms with what he saw and did (The Long Take). It also includes a work of historical fiction (Washington Black). Andrew Miller’s new novel combines these two ideas and it initially seems a travesty that Edugyan’s book sits on the Man Booker list and Miller’s has been passed over.

We meet John Lacroix as he returns from the Peninsula War (1809), a man physically and mentally damaged by what has happened. He is nursed back to health by his housekeeper and sets off for Scotland. Meanwhile, we meet Calley who is a soldier in Portugal giving evidence about a war atrocity in a village. Calley names the officer in charge of the men committing the atrocity and he is charged with finding and assassinating him with a Spanish soldier accompanying him to be a witness and avoid any duplicity by the British. We are not immediately told, but we assume the officer in Lacroix.

The story proceeds in alternating chapters following Lacroix as he travels and Calley as he pursues. Lacroix heads to the Hebrides where he finds the possibility of love. Calley goes around beating people up if he thinks they might know where his quarry is. Having spent many happy holidays on Hebridean islands, I was frustrated for a while by not knowing on which island Lacroix lands because I wanted to be able to picture it and not have it as a generic Scottish island. Also, there is no real sense of the passage of time. So, when both parallel stories take their characters to the same location, you have to initially assume they are there at the same time because there is no way to know that, but the book would make little sense if it were not the case.

The central tension for the reader is that Lacroix, despite his taciturn nature and his obvious war damage, seems like a decent man. He’s a 19th century version of Walker from The Long Take. It is impossible, really, not to start to believe in him and want him to recover and be happy. Can he really be the man behind the atrocity that Calley is seeking and will ruthlessly kill when he finds him?

But the book itself is strangely unconvincing. There are several factual or contextual errors:

1. The second sentence in the book makes reference to the left hand horse of a pair in tandem and this simply makes no sense.
2. The island on which Lacroix settles for a while is initially reported as having no trees, then it has a few trees, then it is treeless.
3. At one point, people sit round a dining table discussing John Clare’s poetry. But this is 1809 and Clare was not published until 1820.
4. I have holidayed in the Hebrides for several years and the writing set there is generic and characterless: it is hard to believe Miller has been there and it feels like “The Hebrides” is a convenient way of saying “somewhere a long way away”.
5. I am not at all sure about referring to the river in Liverpool as the River Mercy. It sounds like an old name for the river, but I can’t find any evidence it is an actual old name for the river.

That said, there is some beautiful writing in the book.

"He drank a glass of wine. He didn’t want anything stronger. He was experimenting with clarity, with time in its ordinary clothes."

And

"…rain in columns of faint shadow drifted landwards."

Is the beautiful writing enough to overcome the lack of conviction? For this reader, no. For many readers, probably yes. Once I noticed some things wrong, I found myself spending more time fact checking than enjoying the story which was a shame because nearly all the facts are OK if you look into them. But once a seed of doubt has been sown, it is hard for a book to recover.

This was my first experience of Miller. He can certainly write beautiful prose. It’s a shame that, for this reader, the attention to detail let the book down.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton who made this book available to the first 100 requestors via NetGalley which his how I got my copy.

The level of description in this book is quite amazing. The author is able to set the scene explicitly and competently. I prefer a faster paced story personally but I can see how this book coild easily become a favourite for those who prefer descriptive language.

I found myself enjoying this book far more than I thought I would. The authors writing style is almost poetic and paints such deliciously descriptive scenery in the readers imagination.

I don’t myself know much about this period in history, but war is war, no matter what century it takes place in. The way the author describes the emotions of Lacroix upon his return are ones I imagine anyone returning from the battlefield would feel.

The author builds Lacroix’s character marvellously throughout the book, taking the reader on Lacroix’s journey to recovery and the small steps he needs to take to make himself whole again. Lacroix’s difficulty in assimilating in to life after the war and finding himself on a remote island in the Hebrides I thought was a nice metaphorical touch illuminating how isolated Lacroix must have been feeling after his return.

There is a really interesting mix of characters and personalities throughout this book, yet for all their differences they all mesh and work well together to complete the narrative. Every character has a place and purpose in the storyline.

This is not necessarily a book I would usually gravitate towards but I am pleased I did so. The only reason this is a four star review is my opinion I felt it was a little bit slow moving in the beginning and the storyline didn’t really pick up properly until about half way through. However, this is a strong novel about war and the emotional after effects this can have on a person, also with some love, kindness and ultimately triumph thrown in. I think there is something in this book for most readers.

An unknown man is carried to a house in Somerset in a storm – a suitably moody opening for this historical novel by Andrew Miller. Set in 1809 the instigator of events is the Peninsular War (which, I have to admit, I knew little or nothing about so this was a good educational experience to go off and research this pretty bleak moment of British military history).

The man is John Lacroix, and he is a haunted man, a broken man. Tended by his old housekeeper he gains enough strength to move on, via his family, to Glasgow and the Scottish islands. But he is also a hunted man; two soldiers - one a British corporal named Calley, the other a Spanish officer named Medina – have been despatched to hunt him down and punish him for the events that took place in a village called Los Morales, a war crime perpetrated by rogue British soldiers. All 3 of these central characters are lost in their own way, and the figure if Calley in particular is revealed to be a violent, brutal thug hellbent on seeking vengeance. The reasons why become apparent as the novel progresses, for this is not a simple manhunt, and the reasons for the atrocity become muddied, as indeed events in war often are.

Miller is a wonderfully poetic write, and his prose is lyrical as he describes both people and landscapes: ‘As the embers of the fire died down so the light fell from their faces. Owl hoot, fox scream. A smear of stars.’ As the book progresses towards its inevitable climax the narrative takes pace, as Lacroix and the family with whom he finds shelter in the islands are hunted by Calley and Medina. The remoteness of the islands becomes a metaphor (‘the world’s scattered edge’) and violence is an intrusion on the community that Lacroix has found.

This is a novel about war, and about the suffering of those it affects. The characters are haunted, scarred, broken. There is resolution and, finally, there is hope of a better future, but it is a world shaped by war and this is what gives the novel its drive. I found myself still thinking about the book long after I finished, and that tells me all I need to know. A bruising, powerful and moving book about war, understanding, and ultimately love. For me, 4.5 stars.

(Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for an advance copy in return for an honest review.)

Andrew Miller is the author of eight books, each independent, and with a fine sense of historical period. This one begins in 1809, after the debacle at Corunna. Captain John Lacroix returns home to his family, having previously taken the king's shilling. Something is not right, and his siblings notice how little he has brought with him, and how often he seems to be looking out windows as if pursued, which he is, although it takes a long time to understand what on earth is going on. He leaves home again to take shelter with his favourite sister, but soon leaves her as well to travel up to Glasgow before fleeing to the Hebrides. How it is that he knows he is being tracked by two soldiers (one Spanish, one English) sent under secret orders to capture the errant Lacroix is never entirely clear. But clearly, he is the scapegoat after extremely bad behaviour by his troops. Medina, the Spanish tracker, is prepared to disappear, but has forgotten how dangerous his opposite number is.

Lacroix plans to do his own tracking of Hebridean son, and is carrying a fiddle with him. He tries to get along with people he meets on the way, many of whom have had a much worse time than he has, including one who wears two hooks where his hands ought to be. Lacroix has taken shelter with a family who belong to a kind of evangelical sect; one of the sisters seems to be losing her sight, and he escorts her to a doctor who thinks he can help, back in Glasgow. There Lacroix finds evidence of the Spanish killer, who has blinded a man who hesitated to tell him what he knew. The final pages free him from his trackers--not least because the English one has no qualms about his mission--but leave him with important decisions to be made.
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A wounded man is delivered to a house in Somerset; in Spain a British corporal and a Spanish soldier are despatched to symbolically avenge a wartime atrocity... The novel tracks with the inevitability of a drum-beat their journeys towards a meeting.
There is so much to enjoy in this novel - a taught thriller of hunter and prey, a love story, an immersive historical setting with a wonderful sense of place - from wartorn Spain, via Bristol to a Glasgow hospital, and Oban and the islands of the West coast. The characters are completely believable, and although Calley becomes increasingly monstrous, you are always aware of the humanity behind his actions.
This is the first novel I've read by this author, and I shall be sure to read more of his work.