Books Are My Bag 2024 Shortlist
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A Novel
Narrator
Russ Bain
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Length
3 hours 6 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“Beautiful book of heartwarming friendship which develops in the most unlikely of circumstances.”
— Joanne • Inscribe Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Subtly beautiful and surprising. An atmospheric creation by a wordsmith of the highest caliber. ”
— Kristine • Buttonwood Books and Toys
Bookseller recommendation
“This lovely short novel about a vicar told to clear the last tenant farmer from an island in Scotland, and how things go sweetly awry, is a breath of fresh air. Davies tells the story simply yet full of atmosphere. It will delight fans of Claire Keegan! I listened to the audiobook and reveled in narrator Russ Bain's accent. It really is just a lovely book.”
— William • An Unlikely Story
Bookseller recommendation
“This book was lovely. I enjoyed the writing and the narrator of the audiobook was great!”
— Dani • Bright Side Bookshop
Bookseller recommendation
“Wonderful audio and the ending!”
— Jennifer • East City Bookshop
Bookseller recommendation
“This historical fiction felt like a classic. It takes place in the 1840s during the Scottish Clearances, when the rural poor of Scotland were forced off the land in droves. John is a poor minister who must leave his wife and home to evict the last man left on the island. When John arrives on the island, he gets in an accident, and Ivar, the man he was sent to evict, finds him and cares for him. Though they don’t speak the same language, they learn to understand each other and build a deep friendship. It’s a short and wonderful read that I loved. ”
— Sandra • Underground Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Impoverished minister John Ferguson must evict Ivar, the last inhabitant of a remote island, during the Scottish Clearances. John falls from a cliff and is rescued by Ivar. As John learns Ivar's language during his recovery, they form a profound connection. A compelling novel about love, resilience, and the power of language.”
— Erica • Author's Note
Bookseller recommendation
“Insightful and memorable, Clear is an elemental portrayal of loneliness, language, and unlikely companionship. Set on a harsh and unforgiving isle in northern Scotland, Davies elegantly shares how regular daily moments can be profound.”
— Miriam Roskam • Mountain Shire: Books & Gifts
“Tender, riveting, and inventive is Clear, the newest offering and masterpiece from the brilliant Carys Davies. It will take your breath away…What a thrill.” —Sarah Jessica Parker
One of Vogue’s Best Books of the Year
Winner of the 2024 Bookmark Festival Book of Year
Shortlisted for the 2024 Books Are My Bag Award and the Historical Writers’ Association Crown Award
Longlisted for Blackwell’s Book of the Year and the 2024 Saltire Society Literary Award
A “daring and necessary…sophisticated and playful” (The New York Times) novel from an award-winning writer, Clear is the story of a minister dispatched to a remote island to “clear” its last remaining inhabitant—an unforgettable tale of resilience, change, and hope.
John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland—Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted.
Shortly after John reaches the island, he falls down a cliff and is found, unconscious and badly injured, by Ivar who takes him home and tends to his wounds. “Clear chronicles the surprising bond that develops between these two men…pack[ing] a great deal of power into a compact tale” (The Wall Street Journal) about connection, home, and hope—in which John begins to learn Ivar’s language, and Ivar sees himself reflected through the eyes of another person for the first time in decades.
Unfolding during the final stages of the infamous Scottish Clearances—a period of the 19th century which saw whole communities of the rural poor driven off the land in a relentless program of forced evictions—this singular novel explores what binds us together in the face of insurmountable difference, the way history shapes our deepest convictions, and how the human spirit can endure despite all odds. Moving and unpredictable, “a love letter to the scorching power of language” (The Guardian), Clear is “a jewel of a novel” (The Washington Post)—a profound and unforgettable read.
Carys Davies’s debut novel West was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, runner-up for the Society of Authors’ McKitterick Prize, and winner of the Wales Book of the Year for Fiction. She is also the author of The Mission House, which was The Sunday Times (London) 2020 Novel of the Year, and two collections of short stories, Some New Ambush and The Redemption of Galen Pike, which won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. Her other awards include the Royal Society of Literature’s V.S. Pritchett Prize, the Society of Authors’ Olive Cook Short Story Award, and a Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library. Born in Wales, she lived and worked for twelve years in New York and Chicago, and now lives in Edinburgh. Clear is her most recent novel.
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