The Silver Bough by Lisa Tuttle (Jo Fletcher Books £14.99)
Reviewed by Jan
Edwards
A silver bough is, in parts of Scotland, the name for
apple trees in general; Lisa Tuttle’s novel is a retelling of the Mabinogi story
of King Bran and the mystic ringing silver bough which bears the golden apples.
The Silver Bough
centres around a village on the Scottish coast. Once
a prosperous place, the significantly named Appleton has fallen into decay. Enter
three American women all looking for something in their lives: Ashley Kaldis, a
teenager searching for the truth about her grandmother who left Appleton for
Texas so many years before; Kathleen Mullaroy, the town’s new librarian,
recently divorced and looking for a new
start; Nell Westray, a young widow looking for a hiding place to recover from
her beloved husband’s death.
A landslide blocks the only road in and out of
Appleton, cutting off all power and communications to the modern world; plus a
mystery fog creeps into the shoreline and keeps shipping at bay. This
catastrophe brings about changes throughout the town and its inhabitants. All
of those changes gradually coalesce around a strange young man named Ronan and the
apple tree that has remained hidden in a walled garden for years on years.
As the town’s enforced isolation goes on, its turns in
on itself to examine its demise. The focus falls upon the Apple Queen
celebrations, an ancient fertility rite, which they had ceased to celebrate in
the 1950s, and from which neglect the older inhabitants feel sure their woes
began. When Nell finds a way into the walled garden and determines to resurrect
the old tradition Appleton begins to subtly change.
This skilful weaving of old folk traditions with
modern urban myth makes The Silver Bough
a fascinating, wistful and intriguing tale that cannot fail to satisfy any
lover of fantasy, any kind of fantasy. Lisa Tuttle ramps up the mystery and
tension right to the very end. Love story, folktale, fantasy, supernatural
mystery: The Silver Bough is all of
these things. Its characters are fully formed and their histories complete, as
are their intertwined fates, all encased in a excellently-written narrative. This
is an excellent read, beautifully presented in a handsome hardback edition. (Note:
The Silver Bough was first published
by Bantam in 2006.)
