The Western Wind - Samantha Harvey
A large proportion of The Western Wind takes place within the dark confines of a makeshift priest’s confessional in the small village of Oakham in Somerset in 1491. It’s surprising the kind of minor infractions of thought and behaviour that the poor working people of the village consider grave enough to have to confess to the local priest, John Reve, but what is rather more worrying is how many of them, in the lead-up to Lent, are prepared to confess to the killing of Thomas Newman, one of the more prominent and wealthy men in the district. Thomas Newman is or was a man of the world, educated, enlightened, well-travelled, steeped in other cultures and ideas, observant of Christian religion but aware of other ideas and belief systems, so it’s a shock to the whole community when it is reported that he has been seen washed down the river that borders Oakham. The implications are enormous for the village, as Newman had long been an instrumental force in efforts to have a bridge built to r...