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.

Not an easy read, due to the unalloyed misery throughout! But I persevered, having stopped reading for a while partway through, finding it too depressing for my mood at the time. Glad I did - it gave an insight into the hardships suffered by ordinary folk caused by a geographical and climate upheaval, which I found particularly pertinent today as the UK is in the midst of unprecedented rainfall levels due to climate change. Not a comforting read, but not to be ignored.

This book was not what I expected, that's not to say it wasn't interesting.

We follow the stories of author Mary Shelley, the painter John Constable, a poor farm labourer in the Fens, a ship's doctor, an American preacher & a Napoleonic soldier
There were times when I found the format confusing, as unlike most books of this type there really was no connection between the stories. I think I was waiting for something to happen that would bring some sort of interaction or a cohesion to the stories but there really wasn't - in many ways the epilogue would have been better as a prologue, setting the scene more & ensuring that the reader is clear that this is the story of how an enormous volcanic eruption in 1815, from Mount Tombora in Indonesia, caused devastation not only in the local area, but that the effects caused crops to fail and unusual weather as far away as Europe and North America

A most unusual novel that had me hooked from the start. The Year Without Summer granted readers glimpses of the global impact from a catastrophic Indonesian volcanic eruption in 1815. Europe experienced epic rain and flooding whilst America is bone dry, suffering the worst drought in memory.

In this brilliant novel we trail after real characters around the world - writer Mary Shelley and John Constable, to name a few, along with fictional characters - who must navigate the difficulties of the time. Civil unrest and revolution quickly follow as times become harder for all. A British ship is sent to investigate what has happened to find thousands dead and an island once rich and thriving smothered under a mountain of ash.

It's an engaging story as we discover the origin of Frankenstein, Mary's breakthrough novel. Her story is one I especially enjoyed. But that's not all. There's plenty of heartbreak and struggle which breathes life into this novel. Sarah Hobbs's story is soul crushing as is Charles Whitlock's. The Year Without Summer is a beautifully illustrated example of how climate change can bring about great ramifications for people trying to survive through difficult times. This is historical fiction at its best.

Amazing and heartfelt. A tale involving a group of mismatched people and their existence against the pond ripple affect of a volcano on the other side of the world.

I did love meeting John Constable. With thanks to #NetGalley and John Murray Press

a most remarkable book, telling how the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora on Sumbawa Island in Indonesia in 1815 had a profound and far reaching impact on the world. It led to sudden cooling across the northern hemisphere, crop failures, famine and social unrest in the following year, which became known as The Year Without Summer and in North America as Eighteen hundred and froze to death. But it wasn’t until the mid twentieth century that volcanic eruptions were shown to affect climate change.

Guinevere Glasfurd’s novel illustrates how the impact of the extreme weather conditions affected the lives of six people. They never meet, or know each other, but their stories are intertwined throughout the book in short chapters, giving what I think is a unique look at the events of 1816. I enjoyed all the stories.

Henry Hogg was the ship’s surgeon on the Benares, the ship sent to investigate the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. He discovered the sea full of floating pumice and charred bodies, whilst the decks of the ship were covered a foot thick with ashes. The immediate effects of the eruption were simply tremendous and horrific, within a hundred miles forests, towns were covered, deep valleys were filled in and the contours of the coast were changed.

In 1816 Mary Shelley travelled to Switzerland with Percy Shelley and her son Willmouse, her step-sister, Claire and Lord Byron and Dr Polidori and after a month of rain, Byron suggests that they should each write a ghost story and that led to her writing Frankenstein.

John Constable’s love of landscapes is deeply unfashionable and his hopes to marry Maria Rebow depend upon him gaining a commission from her parents. His father is near to death and as he has passed his business to Abram, John’s younger brother, John has few prospects other than to make a living from his painting.

Farmworker Sarah Hobbs in the Fens is finding work hard to get and has to settle for shovelling shit in the stables in her bare feet for a penny a day. Always hungry and with work getting even more scarce she gets involved in the Littleport hunger riots. Her story is based loosely on a real person who was condemned to hang for her part in the riots, but her sentence was eventually commuted to transportation. The suppression of these riots was repeated in the 1819 Peterloo Massacre when protesters had gathered in Manchester demanding political reform

The other two people are fictional – preacher Charles Whitlock in Vermont is struggling, having persuaded his flock not to travel to Ohio to escape the draught, only to find that this is followed by periods of hard frost and snow in August. Their prospects are very bleak and death soon follows.

The other fictional character is Hope Peter, a soldier returned from the Napoleonic wars, who finds his mother has died, his family home demolished and a fence has gone up in its place, enclosing the land. He too ends up taking part in a riot – this one at Spa Fields at Islington.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s more like a collection of short stories than a novel, but it works very well for me, highlighting the global connections. It is of course about climate change, showing the far-reaching effects of the Tambora eruption, which weren’t limited to 1815 and 1816. It led to hardships in 1817 and 1818 with the outbreak of cholera and typhoid epidemics triggered by the failure of monsoons. As Guinevere Glasfurd explains in her afterword the eruption is ‘credited with social change throughout the nineteenth century and with the pressure for social reform.’

This was the first book by Guinevere Glasfurd that I’ve read, but it’s not her first book – that was The Words in My Hand, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and was also longlisted in France for the Prix du Roman FNAC. She is currently working on her third novel, a story of the Enlightenment, set in eighteenth century England and France. I’ll be reading more of her work.

Many thanks to Two Roads for a review copy via NetGalley.

An interesting account which somehow lost cohesion.

I was very keen to read Glasfurd’s second book, “The Year Without Summer,” after reading mostly praiseworthy reviews. It shows how one catastrophic event in 1815 impacted on six main characters.

From the outset we learn how a massive eruption in 1815, from Mount Tombora in Indonesia, caused absolute devastation in this area and far beyond! Countless numbers of people were killed and the horrendous ash spewed forth, as the ripples spread outwards.

The effects caused crops to fail, famine increased and livestock died, leading to freakish weather reports, even in Europe and North America!

The author rather bravely discusses the far-reaching consequences, from the narratives of the six main characters ... some famous people and some fabricated, who lived through this shocking time...1815 into 1816.

I’m sure that Guinevere Glasfurd wants the reader to make a comparison between events then and now, regarding the ever-present threat of global climate change. I feel that the connection was made in a heartfelt way but the accounts from each of the characters lacked in cohesion for me.

Galadriel.

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book to review.

I really enjoyed this. The historical setting was very interesting and not at all hammed up (I hate it when books overdo this angle). I liked the back and forth between characters and found the stories of their lives immersive and fascinating.

For placing you in period - 1815 - to be precise this historical "faction" does an excellent job. Linking, the decision by Byron and Shelley to escape the terrible weather in England by moving to France; the troubles and poverty experienced in rural England following the Napoleonic wars; the hardship faced by a returning soldier from Waterloo; the struggles suffered by the painter John Constable; all to the massive volcanic eruption of Mount Tambori is imaginative stuff. Nor, we're led to believe is the link that tenuous. Glasfurd has come up with a thoroughly original work which confirms the adage "every action has a reaction". The climatic impact caused by Tambori, the biggest ever eruption, even if it cannot necessarily be factually validated, clearly chimes with today's concern for the damage "man" may wreak on the planet. Intelligent writing.

Glasfurd links several semi fictional stories set in 1815 the year of a volcanic eruption. Math Shelley is starting to write Frankenstein, Constable is struggling to make a living from painting, meanwhile revolution is beginning amongst those too poor to survive. Individually the stories are mostly bleak, casual death as crops fail and people starve. Even the characters we 'know' don't have easy lives. The afterward explains how huge volcanic eruption can have devastating climate affects globally - 1815 climate change then.
I'm not sure what to make of this as it's well written and interesting but so bleak. Yet that is possibly the point.

DNF at 20%
I personally didn’t connect with the story and I didn’t feel motivated to read it and therefore I’m unfortunately putting it down however I would recommend if you are a history buff wanting to read a topic which hasn’t really been explored

In 1815, there was a massive volcanic eruption in the Pacific and the ash clouds that resulted reduced temperatures across the globe for the next two years and led to poor harvests, famine and social unrest. The event was written up by a naval sea captain at the time, and in this novel by a ship's surgeon called Henry, but its importance in terms of the impact on climate was not realised until the twentieth century.

This book tracks a range of people and tells their stories from 1816: the artist, John Constable in Suffolk, the poets Byron and Shelley in Switzerland, a preacher in Vermont, USA, a Waterloo veteran in Essex, and a young woman from the English Fens. The implication is that the after-shocks of the volcanic eruption impinge on all of their lives in different ways.

Constable's main concern is becoming a successful artist and sufficiently prosperous to be able to propose to the love of his life, Maria. He observes, with a painter’s eye the changes in the Suffolk landscape and the scanty harvests. Meanwhile, the appalling bad weather in Coligny inspires Mary Shelley to begin work on the writing of Frankenstein and the preacher, Charles, gradually realises the limitations of faith and his capacity to advise others. Sarah, the young woman and the Waterloo veteran, Hope Peter, become caught up separately in food riots and talk of revolution. Things end badly for them!

Some bits of the story work better than others. In the end, Constable's father died and he was able to marry Maria with his legacy so that's half positive! Before this, he trundles round Essex and Suffolk fretting about the unkindness of the Royal Academy and making sketches. He has a bit of a contrived tendency to 'see' aspects of his painting so he just happens to note a few men and a cart sorting out the harvest or a nice view of Flatford Mill. It doesn't always work.

Mary Shelley came away from Coligny with the idea for her novel which was actually published in 1818. There's been a lot written and recorded about this holiday and I don't think there are any new insights here about either the Shelley family and Byron or the quick after-dinner discussion about life, historically documented elsewhere, which allegedly caused Mary to begin working on her monstrous creation!

The Vermont episode has the look of an add-on and doesn't quite fit with the geography of the rest of the novel. I found it a bit strange. The stories of the veteran soldier and the angry young woman up against the full force of the local magistrates and the establishment are a bit predictable. The writer differentiates the different strands of the novel by writing style, so John Constable comes over a bit posh and Sarah is Suffolk yokel. That's a bit wearing and difficult when you want to explain your character's motivations.

But these are quibbles. If you like historical re-creations with a nod towards climate change then you might enjoy this book but I doubt it will genuinely add much towards your knowledge of the period, the events it accounts and the people involved. It's still a reasonable read though but I would just have liked a little more insight.

The year 1815 was momentous but I regret that, for me, this book was not. I know that my opinion flies in the face of the eulogies written in praise of the book but I speak as I find.

Streaming the book along the lives of 6 people was a mixed blessing for me as some of the people were very interesting, alive and involving whilst others were not. The latter outnumbered the former and so the best that I can say is that, sadly, this was not a book for me and the 3 stars reflects a neutral rating rather than a critical one.

This book has an interesting premise. I had never heard of the volcano eruption before, and it was fascinating to see the endless repercussions so long ago. I have actually been on a geo tour where the guide told us we were above what was estimated to be the mouth os a volcano, and the dimensions of it were so visually staggering that it sent chills down my arms. This tale begins excitingly. We see the events through the eyes of someone who almost saw the eruption and the direct impact on the people of the island. Then we move on to a few other people in different parts of the world and how the randomness of the weather affected them all. We have one person in the US, one in London, another in a smaller British village and so on. Each of these people was impacted by the weather. The economic ramifications of the collapse of the weather is a very topical subject, given the current scenarios around the world. The poor suffered in a disproportionate amount as they always do in such times. 

The problem was that the individual stories felt like they were just that, separate and removed from the other. This removed the feeling of a shared trauma amongst them and disassociated me from them. It was hard to get emotionally invested in all their lives. Of the six people, I liked three of the stories and was not so involved with the other three. The writing was effortless and a treat to read, but the subject matter did not hold my attention the way I would have liked. I think this book would be an excellent addition to any book club to start conversations and debates about humans vs nature.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based only on my reading experience.

I found this book slow going but ultimately a worthwhile read. The eruption of Mount Tambora affected the whole planet and the book looks at various lives that were affected by it, but the disconnect between those lives left me feeling the format became rather stuttering and it became a slower read than I had hoped, never fully settling into a rhythm.

The story of Sarah Hobbs illustrates one of my favourite aspects of the writing in this book - it has a slightly dated style. There's something immersive about historical fiction that makes the effort to draw you back in time. Glasfurd's subtle finesse in her writing does this impressively, and the effect is most visible and easily appreciated in Sarah's first-person storyline. There's a commitment to the character that is rewarding for the reader.

The stories of Mary Shelley and John Constable were both fascinating, and have encouraged me to examine both in more depth, especially Constable. Including such know individuals in a book such as this can be tricky, but they bring a nice perspective. And on that note, I must further credit the author for the afterword. Yes, I know it's an odd part of a book to consider but it is deserving here. She takes care to explain the artistic liberties taken with historical characters, although there are just a few. It is something I found rather valuable as I often want to learn more about the bigger story after reading such books, and by including these notes I am better informed on where to look. It's a small touch, but one this reader greatly appreciates.

The other storylines underlined my personal dislike of the interwoven format used in this book. It seems as if a collection of short stories has become unwelcome these days, and yet that is exactly how I'd like to have read this book. Much as I dislike damaging books I can't help but feel I would appreciate the storylines more by cutting up a copy and arranging them thusly. Charles Whitlock's storyline is probably the one I feel is the best example of this due to being set in Vermont. It is most removed from the other stories in my mind and therefore would've read much better as a single story rather than mixed in with the rest. The Shelley's trip to Lake Gevena can have a similar criticism too, although it feels less pronounced. But, speaking personally, I feel each storyline would've had more presence is given space to itself.

I confess I also found the storyline that actually featured the volcano somewhat disappointing too. They were few and far between, giving fairly little. Had they given more perhaps they would've helped unify the other storylines more, but as it stands I feel I wouldn't have missed them. They would make a good prologue, but again the weaving takes that away.

That sounds somewhat negative, but in truth, it's a stylistic thing that I suspect will be a little polarising. For some, I have no doubt it is the best choice, but for me, it just felt like a missed opportunity. The stories themselves remain good reads. I just found the structure uninviting. If you're interested in the era, in climate change, or the social issues of wealth disparity, this book adds informative to entertaining.

My thanks to John Murray Press Two Roads for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Year Without Summer’ by Guinevere Glasfurd in exchange for an honest review. It was published on 6 February.

“1816 - one event, six lives, a world changed”

The event actually takes place in 1815 with the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Tambora on Sumbawa Island, Indonesia. This novel weaves together six stories, each exploring the lives of individuals who experience an aspect of this event as its ash cloud blocks the sun and causes the seasons to fail throughout the world.

I felt that in the Author’s Afterword she perfectly summed up her novel: “The year of 1816 was one of flood and fire, of popular protest and revolutionary struggle, of Constable’s art and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. A famine year, when protectionist policies were enacted to protect landed wealth and benefit those never at risk from going hungry. It was a year dominated by strikingly similar debates and concerns about national debt, poor relief and protectionism as those that are being had today, both in austerity Britain and in Trump’s America.”

This highlights that the premise of Guinevere Glasfurd’s historical fiction is very relevant to our current situation given that the effects of the global climate change emergency is in the news daily. I found this message came across very clearly. It is a sober novel with some heartbreaking scenes though remains very readable.

The movement between the six stories made it feel at times a little bitty, yet overall I felt that her writing wove an intricate portrait of her subjects and the period setting. It was clear that she had done a great deal of research and was able to translate that into powerful yet lyrical prose.

On a side note it is mentioned in the Mary Shelley section that the publisher of Lord Byron was John Murray, a reminder of how long this publisher has been established.