The Wilding is set in England in 1672, just after the end of the Civil War. Our narrator is Jonathan Dymond, a young man who works as a cider-maker. Jonathan lives with his loving parents and leads a quiet, happy life, travelling around the neighbouring villages with his mobile cider-press. But when Jonathan’s father receives a mysterious letter from his dying brother, Jonathan grows suspicious and decides to visit his uncle’s widow to investigate. At his Aunt Harriet’s house he meets Tamar, one of his aunt’s servants, and begins to unravel the circumstances surrounding his uncle’s death.
Due to the fast pace and the plot twists, I would recommend reading this book in as few sittings as possible. I had started off reading it in small portions alongside another book and found it difficult to get into the story; when I decided to put my other book to one side for a while and concentrate solely on this one, I found that I flew through the rest of the novel. The story was entertaining, very compelling and kept me turning the pages.
McCann evokes the period very well. I liked the way she portrayed a small rural community in 17th century England. I also learned more than I could ever wish to know about cider-making and apples…
What does Solomon say? ‘Comfort me with apples.’ Everything about them is kind and comforting: the mild eating apple, the sharp or bitter fruit that crushes to a miraculous sweetness, the homely apples, like tried and trusted friends, that serve all purposes.
But to me, the difference between a good book and a great book is having strong characters that I can connect with – and unfortunately I felt that most of the characters in The Wilding had very little depth. As the narrator, Jonathan was boring and not very engaging. Tamar and her mother were both interesting, well-drawn characters, but as we only saw them through Jonathan’s eyes, I didn’t get to know them as well as I would have liked to. It would have been nice to have had part of the story told from Tamar’s perspective, because Jonathan was just too weak and I felt no emotional involvement with him at all.
So, I thought The Wilding was a good book but not a great one. I would recommend it to people who like well-written, fast moving historical fiction with plenty of twists and revelations.
She Reads Novels 
Too bad this book wasn’t as good as it could have been. I’ve heard that from two people now so might add this to my maybe list 🙂
I think it’s worth reading, Amy, but not a must-read. I enjoyed it but was slightly disappointed because it could have been so much better.
Actually, if the main character is boring and lacks depth – I really cannot love that book. This sounds intriguing and I will keep it in mind, to give it my whole attention :o)
For me to love a book it really needs to have characters that I care about – and I just didn’t care what happened to Jonathan. I’d be interested to see what you think of him if you decide to read the book!
Good, but not great is exacty how I’d describe it. I agree that Jonathan was a weak character and I wish we could have seen some of the book through Tamar’s eyes too. Such a shame as the pacing of the plot was fantastic.
I thought Tamar and Joan were far more interesting than Jonathan. The whole book being from Jonathan’s perspective just didn’t really work for me.
My reaction was very similar to yours. I think that a dull narrator can work if he is intelligent, but sadly Jonathan wasn’t.
No, he wasn’t. It’s a shame because with stronger characters this could have been an excellent book.
I’ll probably be skipping over this: a dull narrator drives me crazy! It’s a lovely cover though. 🙂
A dull narrator can really spoil a book for me. I don’t actually need to like them, but they should at least be interesting! And yes, I love the cover too. 🙂
Tamar was superior to Jonathan, and while his being less interesting was good for her I agree it would’ve been better from her point of view. I was glad for the plot continuing while the cider making was going on!
I didn’t find the cider making descriptions very interesting. I have to admit I skimmed over a few of those!