I don't know why this hasn't been written before. A fascinating and disturbing natural anomaly that impacted the whole world. It is also a chilling precursor for climate change.

​This book contains six stories from a diverse group of people including writer Mary Shelley and artist John Constable. What links them all is that they all suffered in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption in 1815, the cloud of ash so thick that it blocked the sun and therefore cancelled out the summer of the next year. 1816 became known as The Year Without Summer. This novel blends the effects of an historical event with fictionalised stories, some based on real people.

​The dull, sunless weather and the failure of the crops are described and the consequences observed from the perspectives of the six over the year. Some of it is harrowing and pitiful; always well done. Glasfurd has written each of the characters with their own voice making this multiple points of view aspect particularly good. The narrative provides a perfect study of social class at this time. 

Some of the stories are more colourful than others. A particularly bright one is the young girl who works at a farm, her tale being told in the first person complete with the local dialect. Others are a bit slow in places. It would have made the book better if it had the been formatted as a collection of short stories instead of the random swapping of chapters, unless all the characters met up at some point. But given their locations it would be unlikely to happen.

A very interesting and well-written book about a far-reaching event in nature. Ironically, the book is published during a pandemic, making it a disturbing prophecy.

Weather is a preoccupation with the British that is before Coronavirus. We moan about rain, cold, heat, drought. This book really brings home the extremes of weather and its effects. In Vermont a vicar Charles yearns for rain, he is courting Laurel through a drought and see the crops and animals die all with a devastating conclusion. Sarah a farmhand is witness to crop failure and the corn laws, on the brink of starvation she is driven to revolt again with life changing results, the same with Peter the ex soldier who expected at least to be able to feed himself on his return from the war but is met with obstacles and frustration. Meanwhile John Constable experiences a different kind of hardship, although not wealthy he strives to marry the woman of his dreams whilst trying to paint in uncertain times. Also the lives of  shelley, his wife and their associates, their bohemian lifestyle is also affected by the weather, leading Mary to question her choices.. All of these events take place at the same time as the horrific Tambora eruption in 1815, this is witnessed by Henry a ships doctor, the consequences of the eruption are far reaching and terrible. 
Very good descriptive novel especially lives of artisists.

The Year Without Summer by Guinevere Glasfurd:
Set in 1815, this novel follows the lives of six characters, all of whom experience cataclysmic changes to their lives due to the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. The six characters are disparate and fascinating, including a ship’s surgeon, Henry Hogg, and Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. 
The eruption of 1815 caused drought and famine and panic, and proved life-changing for the characters in the novel. The effects of the eruption had ramifications for everyone, regardless of their wealth or privilege, and I felt that The Year Without Summer was horribly prescient of our times, particularly in light of the Corona pandemic that is currently sweeping the globe. 
But that didn’t stop me from enjoying this novel hugely. Glasfurd’s prose was precise and evocative, and from the very first page I was drawn into this little known, but tumultuous, period of history.  
Glasfurd undoubtedly remains one of the best historical novelists writing today.

Mount Tambora volcano erupted in April 1815. Twelve thousand people were killed instantly. And across the Indonesian region, between eighty and a hundred thousand died of starvation and disease in the following weeks. The far reaching effects across the world were to have devastating effects - crop failures, famine and social unrest. Across Europe snow fell in June and August; other areas has incessant rain, whilst in North America there was drought and wildfires. Weaving together the strands of history by the telling of the story of five strangers, all based on real people, this is a captivating and interesting historical account of a devastating natural disaster.

In April 1815, in the area now known as Indonesia, Mount Tambora volcano erupted with devastating consequences, not just for the island itself. The repercussions reached far and wide. This book covers the stories of people around the world during the months that followed and imagines what might have been the consequences  when a huge cloud of volcanic ash blotted out the sunlight and affected the weather. I found it fascinating to read how the changes in the weather influenced the artist John Constable and the writer Mary Shelley; In Europe and North America, crop failures and famine affected the lives of poor farm labourers - food riots were cruelly subdued - and the faith of religious communities shaken to the core. As in all tragedies, the hardships brought out the best, and worst, in individuals. 
I was particularly interested to read this book because the English teacher at the school where I worked wrote a play for pupils to perform called 'The Year without a Summer' about the impact of the the events on the rural, coastal community of North Devon..
Not only is this book well researched and informative, it is readable and engaging. The different characters come to life through the pages as they cope with disaster and trauma in different ways, both creatively and destructively.

This felt like a somewhat timely read with everything that's going on in the world right now. The eruption of a volcano in Indonesia causes worldwide repercussions, plunging the northern hemisphere into a second winter, destroying crops and leaving many without sufficient food to survive. Unlike the modern world, the people of 1815/1816 didn't have the internet to spread the word, therefore the cause of the unseasonal weather was unknown to most, leading to a sense that the end of days was nigh.

The Year Without Summer weaves together the stories of several different characters, including Mary Shelley and artist John Constable. The fortunes, or misfortunes, are recounted over several months, and are unflinching in their portrayal of both the hardships caused by the weather and the corruption and inequality in society - the rich sitting on their wealth and food stockpiles while the poor are hung for daring to rise up against them.

It's an absorbing read, particularly considering I knew very little about the events of the summer of 1816. More interesting than the immediate effects, though, were the long term repercussions, which were explored in brief in an afterword which explained the social and cultural reforms that came as a result of the eruption. It made the rather harrowing tales feel less bleak, to know that there was change as a result of everything the characters went through.

There's not much good news in the story, which at times makes it a little heavy, but if you're interested in history, particularly the history of catastrophes and disasters, then definitely pick this one up.

My thanks to Netgalley for my copy.

I received an ARC of this book from net galley in return for an honest review. 

In 1815 a volcan erupted causing mass death and destruction and climate change. Fomr this the author has woven together several time lines and characters all impacted from strange weather systems 
Pery Byshe Shelly
john Constable
Hope peter - a veteran of the napoleonic wars
Laurel - a woman in America trying to keep her farm going (i think)

The trouble - as far as i see it- is the time lines are too disparate, there is no relationship between them. I feel as if Shelley and Constable are included to add to kudos to the story line

it is tiring, laboured uninteresting. I feel as if the author might have been better to concentrate on the volcanic eruption and its outcomes in the immediate vicinity. I don't believe there are any real connections between the events described 

It was a stolid heavy read and I am not inclined to look for more by this author

This was a beautifully written book with a few timely relevant plot points which made me want to pick it up. 
I liked it but I wasn’t blown away. It isn’t something I would put into any favourite book listings but it was still a good read and worth the time.

An average kind of read for me, had a lot of promise due to its similarity to the current pandemic/ climate change situation but just felt it didn’t deliver. 

In 1815 Mt Tambora volcano erupts on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia, previously Dutch East Indies and the fallout affecting the global climate for around 3 years.  Pre-industrial communities were hugely affected by the fallout, loss of life initially followed by crop failures, starvation and flooding across Europe.

Guinevere Glasfurd endeavours to use a host of characters to depict the unrest caused by the eruption including Mary Shelley and John Constable as well as others affected by the crop failures. The greed of those higher in the social scale is apparent and due to their cruelty, riots ensue.

Overall the novel left me wanting, it reads more in short story chapters and took me a while to determine the connections. 

Thank you to Two Roads publishers, the author and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

In this new historical novel by Glasfurd the years presented are 1815-16 and she melds known historical facts and people with her fictional interpretation. In April 1815 Mount Tambora on Sumbawa Island (Indonesia) erupted, HMS Benares nearby was ordered to investigate “explosions” only to find the central volcano had  virtually disappeared as a result causing massive destruction of the local environment and the inhabitants. It is said that this occasioned a huge spread of dust and debris into the air that spread to the whole of the Northern Hemisphere. The loss of natural light caused extremes of temperature change in many areas, crops failed and people went hungry for many years. 
Glasfurd presents the tale as a series of vignettes starting with “reports” by the ship’s surgeon Henry Hogg (in fictional letters to his wife at home in Britain) of what their investigations showed and the desperate attempts to “treat” the injured with inadequate medical supplies or knowledge. For 1816 we have intermixed tales of a number of people both real and fictional in Europe and North America. 
In Vermont we are introduced to a preacher Charles Whitlock who persuades his congregation to stay and face the failing weather instead of moving “west”. His love and marriage to a reluctant wife is graphically depicted against the unnatural weather and the failure of crops, animals and eventually people. His religious authority is challenged as things get worse and his view of himself and his God is altered forever.
In Switzerland we are given the tale of Mary Wollstonecraft Goden who is with her step sister Claire, partner Percy Bysshe Shelley and her newborn son. They will, of course, meet up with poet Lord Byron and his friend Polidori. The weather is extreme, food shortages are starting to abound, and Claire will end up pregnant to an uncaring Byron. And there will be the well known challenge among the bored writers to write something appropriate to their times. Mary, struggling with household difficulties in straitened finances and coping with a new baby (and the loss of her previous daughter) is at a disadvantage as she is not a writer of poetry – the highest art in the eyes of the men. She will of course start working on her novel Frankenstein and Glasfurd quietly links the developing tale to Mary’s understanding of increasingly “unnatural” physical conditions about her.
Back in England we see the developing artist John Constable. From a rural Suffolk he derives a private income from a mill on the family estate run by his brother. But still has insufficient income to marry his fiancée in the face of her family’s disapproval. His father is dying; with poor crops the mill income is uncertain. But his choice of landscape style is not popular (or easily saleable) even as the landscape around him is evolving through chances due to land enclosure and weather deterioration. But his is the relatively “wealthy” perspective.
Offset against this is a small cluster of other people Sarah Hobbs an agricultural worker in the Fens. With enclosure the medieval system of small/holdings has been swept away and most people increasingly relied on wages from daily farm labour – with uncertain weather and crops, daily rates fall and people can be exploited. 1816 is the year, too, when a lot of soldiers are returning from service in the Napoleonic Wars. They are damaged in many ways and have often lost contact with their families and communities. They are returning as the established “war economy” is being overturned, another financial disruption. “Hope Peter” an ex-soldier is trying to reach his village in Essex before having to return to London in desperation.  Collectively these characters show the deep hardships people face, their attempts to assert their rights to a decent living wage – and how of course so many of them failed. All of this is shown in a sympathetic but pulling no punches detail.
So a historical novel, but also massively relevant one to now. People extraneous to “economic” policy need. Increasing poverty against excessive consumption, environmental failure, and people trying to fight for a decent life against the controlling and unsupportive establishment and overwhelming odds.  The melding of the real with fictional characters really punches home the message to any socially minded person. It also teaches the lesson that “cultural icons”, many of them from wealthy backgrounds; may have been “struggling” creatives but that needs to be set against the grim lives of real people. It is written so well it all seems very real – the only criticism is the intermingling of the people cuts across the flow of the tale, but against the success of the whole that is something that can be tolerated.

What an unusually informative book - and somehow it seemed appropriate to be reading about the effects of a natural disaster just now! Flitting between stories of characters from the range of the social and economic spectrum this story of the terrible effects of a volcanic eruption half a world away on a range of continents and their inhabitants had my attention from the start. The descriptions are vivid and often unexpected and the well-researched historical details added to the attraction. One to recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this.

'All of life pushed past him regardless, uncaring or blind, and he knew not what was worse: those who saw and looked away or those who did not look at all.'

In parts I enjoyed this book. Parts were very descriptive, and pulled me in. Overall it felt a bit old fashioned in the way it was written, which fit with the timing of the story.

Until the afterword, where the explanation was given about how the stories were linked together because of the impact of the eruption (i.e. the change to the weather in other parts of the world) I wouldn't have understood how they were linked. It felt more like a collection of stories relating to each individual laid out in the foreword. 

The book itself told of the devastating impact the eruption had, and the result for each of the characters in turn. It was quite a dire and sad tale.

I'm not sure I would read another book by this author, but I did enjoy it in parts.

In 1815 the battle of Waterloo is won and in Indonesia a massive volcanic eruption occurs.  For one ship's surgeon, seeing the devastation is frightening.  A year later and in Vermont there is a terrible drought, crops cannot survive, animals and humans are starving.  Meanwhile in The Fens revolt against enclosures is brewing and in London revolt against taxes and prices is also afoot, snow in summer means crops have failed.  For painter John there is a battle between love and the artistic muse and in Switzerland Mary sees a flood of refugees as starvation bites the poor.
Based on a series of true stories this book weaves the lives of six individuals into the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Tambora.  Two of the narrators are wellknown, Mary Shelley discovering her muse and John Constable making a shift in his painting, but it is the four others that provide the most moving testimony.  This is a great book in that it tells a very human tale which, although fictionalised is based on a worldwide tragedy.

I had no idea this super volcanic eruption had taken place in 1815, super interesting.
I was a bit disappointed about the individual stories though, I didn't find them very compelling and as much as I wanted to like this book I was a bit disappointed.
I do think it's a massive warning to the world today about our climate change!
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Six lives unfold in the wake of a massive volcanic eruption in 1815.  None of them connected by anything except the time and appalling weather.  You skip between the six people, some of whom are real.  I found the lives interesting but sometimes got confused as the narrative switched from one person to the other.  Came out feeling a little gloomy not unlike the weather in the book.

I was sent a copy of The Year Without Summer by Guinevere Glasfurd to read and review by NetGalley.
To begin with I struggled a bit with this novel as there were so many disparate characters each with their own chapter that I found it rather confusing and disjointed.  This was exacerbated when one of the character’s stories ended quite abruptly with no seeming connection to the others throughout the book.  The prose itself is well written and the individual stories quite compelling, but I found the tenuous link of being set at the same time (1815/16) was not enough to make a cohesive whole.  I personally would have preferred the book to have been set out as separate short stories, beginning with the eruption of the volcano that was the catalyst for the unseasonable weather that followed.  The individual narratives would then flow uninterrupted allowing the reader to engage with more focus, and for me more enjoyment.  For the writing itself I would give 4 stars but the layout of the novel was so problematical to me that I can only justify giving 3 stars in total, which is a shame.

A very unusual novel which I thoroughly enjoyed most of the time. It is more like a series of linked short stories about the effects of a catasclysmic volcano eruption on different communities and individuals, mostly in England and Europe. Several historical literary personalities feature in the novel and there is a fair amount of historical information there as well. I thought the characters were well drawn and believable and often found myself getting bound up in their situations. If you are looking for a very interesting read, different to the run-of-the mill novel,  I recommend The Year Without Summer.

The Year Without Summer is a very unusual  historical novel following the stories of six people across the world and how their lives are affected by the eruption of the volcano Tambora in 1815.
Written as six individuals stories it is a little bit disjointed and I found myself flipping backwards to try and remember who was who. But an interesting take on the true life effects of the power of the volcano.

I wasn't sure whether I would enjoy this book, but I found it a gripping and very interesting read.  I would thoroughly recommend it.

Intriguing and Compelling

I wasn't sure I was going to like this book when I started to read it but very soon I was hooked and found it a compelling page turner.

The story starts in 1816 with a terrible volcano eruption in the East Indies as documented by a ship's doctor who was in the thick of the explosion.  It triggers a series of events around he world - hailed at the  time as the world without summer as crops dried in England and US leaving the poorest peasants ready to revolt against the rich farmers for more favourable working conditions - unfortunately these revolts didn't end well.  It also documented the struggles at the time of John Constable who wasn't able to gain entry to the Royal Academy of Art, was struggling financially and in love with Maria - against the wishes of her grandfather.  At the same time Mary Shelley and her family travelled to Switzerland which saw her sketching out her story that was to become Frankenstein.

I loved the characters - both real and fictitious and felt the plight deeply of the Suffolk Farmers.  I didn't quite feel as engaged with Mary Shelley's story but Constable's life at that time was frustrating and that came out vividly in the booik.

I highly recommend this and will look for further books by Ms Glasfurd