Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller
Andrew Miller is a British writer of some renown, but I had not read his books until recently when recommended by a friend. I started with Now We Shall Be Entirely Free, intrigued by the time period in which the story takes place. It is 1809 when we meet our hero, Captain John Lacroix, as he is being carried from a carriage into his home in England. He is met by a woman who takes charge and cares for him as he recovers from his injuries. It takes some time to discover who the woman is and some of the history of the man she cares for.
The writing is glorious and the events of the time are indeed fascinating. England is at war in Europe, and every able-bodied man in England has been requisitioned for military service. There has been a disastrous battle in Spain, followed by a meeting of powerful men. A mission is arranged to apprehend the man they have decided is to be blamed for the deaths and desecration of many residents in a small village.
We then follow these men, a British thug and his Spanish side kick, as they travel through the British Isles, from England’s south coast to the Hebrides. Lacroix is thought to be a deserter from the army. He attempts to be lost, the others to apprehend him. It is very much a sort of Kidnapped landscape and wild chase through the Highlands. The word swashbuckling comes to mind. There is never a moment when you are not afraid for the life our hero.
There is a wonderful cast of secondary characters, clergymen and bar keepers, and ferry men. The most important, the family who rescue Lacroix when he is once again badly injured, a father and two adult daughters. One daughter is pregnant, awaiting the return of her child’s father, the other, Emily, is almost blind.
Emily’s desire to save her sight becomes the other road this novel travels, to Glasgow to a doctor who is performing surgery that has not yet been tried in Scotland but may have some success.
It is Emily, at the end of the novel, who exclaims ‘John!’ she cried. “John! Now we shall be entirely free!’ How each reader will interpret that is a question I wonder about still.
A completely wonderful book! I will certainly now read the rest of Andrew Miller’s novels.