"The Wood at Midwinter" by Susanna Clarke

This is a short story bound in hardcover. Sam and I both really enjoyed reading Clarke's Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and this book has a pretty little cover, so of course we bought it. 

It turned out to be a bit of a letdown. It's only about fifty pages long, and many of those pages are quite light on text. (Does it seem like a cash grab, to publish an itty bitty thing like this as a stand-alone book? Kinda. I mean, the book costs about a dollar per minute of reading time.) And I'm sure there was an element of not meeting our high expectations for Susanna Clarke. The story does seem magical and intriguing, but it could have been fleshed out so much more. Plus, the deep cobalt blue of the cover's background doesn't look good with the more muted colors of the Wordsworth Collector's Editions we have on display (first world problems, I know). 

This is the (short) story of Merowdis Scot, a daydreamy young woman who likes nothing more than to wander through the winter woods with her pets: two dogs and a pig. Her older sister Ysolde is understanding and indulgent, bringing Merowdis to the wood-gate for her rambles. Eventually (spoiler alert!) she disappears into the wood, a bear cub as her child. 

I was really hoping this story was based on a real painting in a real church. (It was not.) But you should try imagining that it is being read to you in the warm, slow, raspy but velvety low voice of a kind old British woman. It's more fun that way.