Once Upon a River
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From bestselling author Diane Setterfield, a new mystery as gorgeous, spellbinding and addictively readable as her blockbuster debut The Thirteenth Tale.
Solstice is a time of dreaming, a time of stories and a time of magic.
On a dark, misty night in the small English village of Radcot, locals gather at the Swan Inn to cap their day with drinks and lore. The 600-year-old pub is a famed hub for storytellers, but the patrons cannot know that their evening will be stranger than any tale they could weave. Into the inn bursts a mysterious man, sopping and bloodied and carrying an unconscious four-year-old girl. But before he can explain who he and the child are, and how they came to be injured, he collapses.
Upriver, two families are searching desperately for their missing daughters. Alice Armstrong has been missing for twenty-four hours, ever since her mother's suicide. And Amelia Vaughan vanished without a trace two years prior. When the families learn of the lost little girl at the Swan Inn, each wonders if their child has at last been found. But identifying the child may not be as easy as it seems.
Once Upon a River is a miracle of a novel, a tale of love and family, of secrets and betrayal, and of the transformative power of storytelling.
About this Author
DIANE SETTERFIELD is the author of The Thirteenth Tale, which was published in thirty-eight countries worldwide and has sold more than three million copies, and Bellman & Black. Before leaving academia to pursue writing, she taught English at the Institut universitaire de technologie and the Ecole nationale supérieure de Chimie, both in Mulhouse, France, and later lectured in French at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. She lives in Oxford, UK.
Reviews
An Amazon Best Book of the Year
A Good Housekeeping Best Book of the Year
"Setterfield masterfuly assembles an ensemble of wounded, vulnerable characters who, nevertheless, live by the slimmest margins of hope. . . . [Once Upon a River] celebrates the timeless secrets of life, death and imagination--and the enduring power of words. Fans, rejoice!" --Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Once Upon a River [is] an eerily mystic tale. . . . Though Setterfield writes emotions with marvelous truth and subtlety, her most stunning prose is reserved for evocative descriptions of the natural world, creating an immersive experience made of light, texture, scent and sensation. . . . This is not a tightly plotted whodunit so much as a story for those who appreciate the tale's telling as much as its end--who mark with interest the bends in the river, and who will treasure the friends they bump into along the way." --The Washington Post
"A story, no matter how cleverly it is structured, lives or dies on the vividness of its characters. Setterfield, a true storyteller, makes us care about all her players in this beguiling novel." --The Times (UK)
"Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic and richly atmospheric, the beginning of this novel will sweep you away on a powerful current of storytelling, transporting you through worlds both real and imagined, to the triumphant conclusion whose depths will continue to give up their treasures long after the last page is turned." --Bookriot
"Setterfield's prose feels lifted from another era, a gothic lyricism resembling old classics like Jane Eyre." --Entertainment Weekly
"Diane Setterfield weaves a beautiful, suspenseful mystery . . . that will keep you engrossed until the very last page." --PopSugar
"Once Upon a River [is] a story that straddles the line between reality and fantasy, between science and the supernatural, between the land of the living and the unknown terrain of the dead. . . . Richly steeped in folklore and magical realism, Once Upon a River is a deeply moving novel about love and loss, family and community, about magic and science and that mysterious space between life and death. But most of all, it is a novel about stories, the ones we tell ourselves every day and the ones we choose to share with others." --Bustle
"Once Upon A River is magical, in every which way. . . . It's the power of her storytelling that allows readers to suspend disbelief, and draws them through each tangled, dazzling chapter. . . . Setterfield's imagination is powered by an otherworldly force. This riverine novel has the mood and feel of a ghost story told late into the night, and will win over readers who enjoy a touch of age-old enchantment." --Financial Times (UK)
"A bold, gripping narrative which fuses science, mystery and myth." --The Daily Mail (UK)
"Once Upon a River continues to demonstrate her mastery of the Gothic genre in a way that will appeal to modern readers. . . . Setterfield knows how to make the words sing. It is worth taking a journey down the Thames with her." --The Independent (UK)
"Setterfield is a master of the medium. Like the river at its core, her plot twists and turns with ease and confidence, and her writing is beautiful. The story she tells--and which her characters retell--is as vivid as the old folktales and real histories that inform it." --The Spectator (UK)
"Exploring themes of storytelling, parenthood, science and society on the cusp of change, this is a richly evocative novel." --Observer (UK)
"A finely drawn cast and bravura storytellling." --Mail on Sunday (UK)
"An absolute feast of a book, which will keep you engrossed as the cold north wind whistles outside." --Red
"Brimming with folklore, intrigue and romance, this is a story to savour." --Woman and Home
"An enchanting mix of mystery and folklore." --Good Housekeeping
"This pungently atmospheric, quietly smoldering thriller sensitively mixes superstition, oral storytelling and the emerging psychology movement of the 19th century." --Metro (UK)
"This enchanting historical story is full of folklore and intrigue." --Prima
"Like Setterfield's earlier novel The Thirteenth Tale, Once Upon a River is very much a story about the spellbinding power of storytelling. . . . A deeply satisfying read." --New York Journal of Books
"This dense, absorbing, beautifully atmospheric novel weaves a truly hypnotic spell." --Heat
"Setterfield brilliantly captures a time and place on the cusp of modernity, plays bleakness and warmth off against each other to create a life-affirming tale of what it means to be human." --Press Association
"One of the most pleasurable and satisfying new books I've read in a long time. Setterfield is a master storyteller. . . . Swift and entrancing, profound and beautiful." --Madeline Miller, internationally bestselling author of Circe and The Song of Achilles
"Once Upon a River is a delight, just marvellous. I devoured it in gulps." --Jo Baker, author of Longbourn
"Diane's masterful storytelling draws you in to a beguiling tale, full of twists and turns like the river at its heart, and just as rich and intriguing. It lures you into its depths and carries you along in its vividly evoked world" --M.L. Stedman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Light Between Oceans
"This is magical, bewitching storytelling. . . . High prose expressed with rare clarity, story for the unashamed sake of story, a kind of moral dreaminess . . . well, the list continues to grow." --Jim Crace, National Book Critics Circle winner and author of Being Dead and Harvest
"I was completely spellbound by this book. Numerous strands of the same story are skillfully woven into a magical web from which I, as a reader, had no desire to escape. Setterfield's prose is beautiful, dark and eerily atmospheric, and her rich cast of characters convincingly illustrate the best and worst of humanity. Utterly brilliant!" --Ruth Hogan, internationally bestselling author of The Keeper of Lost Things and The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes
"Once Upon A River succeeds in doing what you hope every book will do--pull you in from the first page, hold you captive in the middle, then leave you satisfied and thoughtful at the end. I loved it." --Renee Knight, author of Disclaimer
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