I really enjoyed this novel, it was very well researched and the perspectives from six different characters from around the world from vastly different backgrounds worked very well. I did know about the "Starving years", after Waterloo but had no real concept of the scale of the hardship, or that it was so widespread beyond Europe extending to the US. It made me want to read more about Mary Shelly.

It has also given me pause for thought about what would happen if there was a similar eruption today. With western supermarkets using just in time delivery and usually holding 2-3 days stock, we would descend into just such civil disruption even faster than in 1816!

A fictional account of a fascinating moment in history.

The effects of the 1815 eruption of the Tambora in Indonesia were felt worldwide for three years after the event. Snow fell in summer, biblical floods washed Europe, while North America was hit with drought. Crop failure and famine led to social unrest, and the failure of monsoons gave rise to cholera and typhoid epidemics.

Glasfurd draws on her research to imagine half a dozen or so of the lives of those affected, including artist John Constable and author Mary Shelley. Each character forms a separate strand, which Glasfurd loosely weaves together.

With the exception of the tale of ship's doctor, Henry, the strands fail to engage. The inconsistent hopping from one character to another, then back again, certainly didn't help. As the strands do not intersect, the reader might have found it easier to feel for the characters had each strand been presented as a standalone short story. As it is the novel falls flat. A pity.

With thanks to NetGalley and Two Roads, an imprint of John Murray Press for the ARC.

I enjoyed parts of this more than others. It was the fictional accounts from the Sarah and the ship's doctor that I found more engaging than the story of Constable and Shelley - I found the latter rather tedious. Also, I'd hoped that there would be some connection between these stories, instead of being separate, parallel accounts. But the overall story of the devastating effect of the volcano was very interesting and - in light of recent events - rather disturbing.

A really interesting read of a time I had no real knowledge of. Spanning through different threads this was a compelling novel. I would have enjoyed a longer ending seeing the different characters

I’m sorry to say that I didn’t enjoy this book. I felt it was more a collection of short stories rather than a novel. I thought there were too many storylines in it and the constant going back and forth was annoying. There was very little uplifting in the narrative so if you’re looking for something to read that will leave you feeling positive don’t choose this title.

In 1815 Mount Tambora exploded causing the summer of 1816 to vanish in ash and smoke. This novel tells the story of six characters who are all affected in different ways by this eruption. I can appreciate how these stories are relevant to current environmental concerns and the personal as well as social, economic and political impacts but overall I found it a slightly disappointing read, more like six short stories rather than a whole.

Having so enjoyed Guinevere Glasfurd’s first book, I was looking forward to this and it did not disappoint.

A volcano has erupted, one of the biggest eruptions ever recorded, and this event is real.

Glasfurd constructs a host of narratives around this incident, with many of the impacted characters wholly unaware of the event; John Constable is striving to make a living from painting, while desperate to marry his sweetheart, with his story set in a dismal, grey summer; Sarah is a farmhand, living in desperate poverty, caught up in riots and rebellion and punished for her slight involvement; Mary Shelley starts to conceive the idea for her famous novel Frankenstein; Charles is a minister, praying to his God to break the drought, and Hope Peter returns from the war to find nothing waiting for him.

Very, very clever dramatisation around a real historical event. Highly recommended - I had such sympathy for all the characters.

This is a great premise but the writing is not strong enough. There's too much description and not enough story/ character development. Sorry but DNF.

We have six stories here, short chapters of each interwoven throughout. None is connected with any other, apart from the fact that they all take place in 1816 in the immediate aftermath of the eruption of the volcano Mount Tambora in Indonesia. The resulting ash cloud disrupted the climate of the northern hemisphere, causing widespread crop failure, famine and civil unrest. Not that anyone knew this at the time - the author’s afterword explains that it is only in the last century that scientists have established the link between volcanic activity and climate change, and the profound effect even a couple of degrees difference in temperature can have.

I found the two stories featuring well-known figures (Mary Shelley and John Constable) interesting, the others less so, with one exception and that was Sarah’s story. Hers is the only one told in the first person and is all the more moving for that. I discovered in the afterword that she is based on a real person who took part in the riots in East Anglia and suffered at the hands of a brutal establishment.

The author’s stated intention in writing this novel is to point out the similarities between the situation in 1816 and that in the UK and USA today, and to look at the responses of those who lived through ‘the year without summer’ - their art, their writing, their acts of desperation.

‘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.’

‘And yet, of course, the past is with us. The effects of Tambora are everywhere around.
What is this story for? Where does all the knowing take us? Towards comfort? Towards hope? What use is that? What is a story for, if not to propel us? To provide, after all, urgent impetus for us to act.’

So, a climate change warning here. I guess the novel works well in that respect. Overall, though, I found half of the characters and their experiences unengaging and I might have enjoyed the book better without them. A focus on John Constable and Sarah Hobbs, and even some interaction between them if that could have been contrived, would have suited me well.

After a volcanic eruption in 2016, the earth's delicate ecological balance was disrupted and dramatic weather events affected the world in a variety of ways. Unaware of this connection, six stories unfold during the following year, the 'year without summer'. Sometimes brutal, moving and always beautifully written.

The Year Without Summer is a historical novel following the stories of six characters and how their lives are affected by the eruption of the volcano Tambora in 1815. The eruption caused global climate disruption and famine, and the novel looks at different ways this affected people and the political and artistic mood. From a ship surgeon close to Tambora to a farm labourer fighting the injustice of going hungry whilst the farmers get everything, the six characters are very different. two are famous figures—Mary Shelley and painter John Constable—and many of the narratives are woven with real events as the characters deal with their lives changing thanks to an event most of them are unaware of.

The novel's six narratives are completely separate, which means that inevitably everyone will find certain ones more engrossing. Mary Shelley is the figure perhaps most famously linked to the 'year without summer' as it forms part of the myth-making around her writing of Frankenstein, and Glasfurd's version plays into this with a focus on the real life figures involved. Constable's story, too, feels quite detailed, even for those who don't know anything about his life, and this is possibly the result of having details about these people's lives to work from. Otherwise, the farm labourer Sarah' story is an interesting one, highlighting the riots and battle against injustice that went on during the period. The other narratives were less gripping, and in particular the ship surgeon and Vermont preacher's narratives didn't feel like they offered much.

This is a novel that clearly engages with current climate concerns on one level whilst telling a range of historical stories on the other. It is a decent historical fiction book in some regards, but the six narratives don't quite work together and the book can drag due to this. It's difficult not to wish there were fewer narratives and more space to explore them.