I feel like Learwife is going to be one of those books which stays with me for a long time. The writing is lyrical, heavy with imagery and a depth which is at times almost unfathomable. The protagonist, wife of Lear, is locked away in a nunnery whilst the events of the Shakespearean tragedy play out, and though those characters feature heavily, this is ultimately the story of Lear's wife, a flawed woman who has been given her own voice by Thorp.

This novel gives us a snapshot of her life in the nunnery and is utterly full of intrigue, with flashbacks to her life as Queen and what led to her banishment. This is a feminist story at its core, showing the multiple sides to life as a woman: mother, daughter, wife. And this makes it a timeless story, reaching through the centuries to resonate with us today.

The writing of the learwife by J R Thorp is exceptional! Not my usual choice of book but throughly enjoyable if not slightly lengthy

Learwife gives a voice to the forgotten yet unforgettable wife of King Lear from Shakespeare's eponymous play. A woman's whose life was a mystery is no more thanks to the voice given to her by J.R. Thorp.

This is a book that is wonderfully written with lyrical and visceral prose and it almost stands as an abstract poem. However, I do feel that at times plot and character were sacrificed in favour of form and style.

At times I felt like the narrative could have been sharper and for me I felt like the book was slightly too long.

Thank you for the advance copy to read in return for an honest review.

This is simply an extraordinary piece of writing. It's the sort of fiction that needs to be experienced rather than read - it appeals, at least in my case, not so much to my head as to something far more visceral. It entrances like a piece of music, a sophisticated fragrance, an abstract poem. I didn't know what was going on for swathes of the narrative but that doesn't seem to matter, at least in part, because story or plot isn't the main thrust of the writing.

That said, this is a piece that is anchored in King Lear, though a Christianised Lear where there is a nunnery in which the narrator has dwelled for fifteen years while the events of the play take place beyond her knowledge. There is Kent, and the Fool; there is Lear; perhaps most of all there are the three daughters, all dead now: Goneril, Reagan and Cordelia.

In part this touches on some of those perpetual enigmas from the play, but it also uses the motifs of the storm and savagery; of madness; weaves in key lines, Nothing will come of nothing... I will not see their like again; and ends with a kind of peace that is simultaneously survival and death. And at times the voice of the Learwife herself made me think of Plath's equally extraordinary Lady Lazarus.

I'd say this is too long given the focus on experience rather than narrative, but the writing is truly exceptional - one of those books where I finished it and wanted to turn right back to the beginning and start it all over again.