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Harvest: A Novel Hardcover – Deckle Edge, February 12, 2013

3.9 out of 5 stars 1,734

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SHORT-LISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

On the morning after harvest, the inhabitants of a remote English village awaken looking forward to a hard-earned day of rest and feasting at their landowner's table. But the sky is marred by two conspicuous columns of smoke, replacing pleasurable anticipation with alarm and suspicion.

One smoke column is the result of an overnight fire that has damaged the master's outbuildings. The second column rises from the wooded edge of the village, sent up by newcomers to announce their presence. In the minds of the wary villagers a mere coincidence of events appears to be unlikely, with violent confrontation looming as the unavoidable outcome. Meanwhile, another newcomer has recently been spotted taking careful notes and making drawings of the land. It is his presence more than any other that will threaten the village's entire way of life.

In effortless and tender prose, Jim Crace details the unraveling of a pastoral idyll in the wake of economic progress. His tale is timeless and unsettling, framed by a beautifully evoked world that will linger in your memory long after you finish reading.

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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The order and calm of a preindustrial village in England is upset by a mysterious fire and the simultaneous appearance of three strangers. The insular community strikes out against the newcomers but turns on itself in a fit, literally, of witch hunting. As slowly paced as the feudal England in which it is set, this latest by the highly acclaimed Crace, winner of the Man Booker Prize for Quarantine (1998), is a tour de force written in the precise but simple—indeed, medieval—language of its resident narrator, Walter Thirsk. His eye is keen, his observations insightful, and his fundamental compassion evident as he experiences the passing of his and his community’s pastoral quiet. This is a spare, disquieting, unique, and ultimately haunting and memorable little novel. Its limited accessibility may restrict its audience, but followers of literary fiction will be reading and talking about it. --Mark Levine

Review

Longlisted for the Man Booker prize!

"Jim Crace is the most generous of writers. A fabulist, an open heart, an imagination in full flight. There is something of a harvest in every book: the promise, the violence, the fall, the regain. And
Harvest is one of his best novels ever. He is, quite simply, one of the great writers of our time."  Colum McCann, National Book Award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin

"Glorious ... 
Harvest calls to mind J. M. Coetzee’s finest and most allegorical novel, Waiting for the Barbarians ... Crace writes with a particular, haunting empathy for the displaced ... His plots may be epic, but his sentences carry a sensual charge ... In his compassionate curiosity and his instincts for insurgent uncertainty, Crace surely ranks among our greatest novelists of radical upheaval, a perfect fit for our unstable, unforgiving age." The New York Times Book Review

"The most seductive and enthralling of Crace’s novels." New Statesman

"[
Harvest] is intellectually and morally engaging while also being exciting to read ... Mr. Crace's imagery brilliantly suggests the loamy, lyric glories of rustic English language and life ... [he] devotes his considerable talents to telling an affecting tale of a bound world and its simple people as they head toward a tragic and inexorable breakdown."
—Wall Street Journal

"Surreptitiously thought-provoking ...
Harvest attains a haunting and almost subversive quality." —Boston Globe

"Ravishingly rich in evocations of country life ... Crace’s prose is so sensual you can’t help but believe it describes an actual material place. But this village is like the forests of the Brothers Grimm, a setting meant to be both familiar and strange. If you think Crace is only talking about the shift from the medieval to the modern world, you’d be very, very wrong." Salon

"In language beautiful and painstakingly precise, Jim Crace circumscribes the story as neatly as a fairy tale ... Entirely absorbing."
Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"
Harvest is as finely written as it is tautly structured. Pungently flavoured with archaic words, its language is exhilaratingly exact, sometimes poetic and sometimes stark. Magnificently resurrecting a pivotal moment in our history about which it is deeply knowledgeable, this simultaneously elegiac and unillusioned novel is an achievement worthy to stand alongside those of Crace’s great fictional ­influence, William Golding." The Sunday Times

"Crace, an original and a literary stylist, with, usually, something remarkable to say, says it here in a haunting work of sudden violence and vengeance ... Few novels as fine or as complex in their apparent simplicity will be published this, or indeed any, year." —Irish Times

"As with Crace's other novels,
Harvest is deftly written, in language — formal, slightly archaic even — that reflects the setting it describes. It's also tightly plotted ... Crace's real concern is his characters, the way that, like all of us, they make mistakes and act from weakness, and turn on one another when things go wrong." —Los Angeles Times

"Crace’s signature measured delivery and deliberate focus create unforgettably poetic passages that quiver with beauty. An electrifying return to form." —
Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Rarely does language so plainspoken and elemental tell a story so richly open to interpretation on so many different levels....With economy and grace, the award-winning Crace gives his work a simplicity and symmetry that belie the disturbances beneath the consciousness of its narrator....Crace continues to occupy a singular place in contemporary literature."
Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Nan A. Talese; First Edition (February 12, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385520778
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385520775
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.11 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.57 x 0.92 x 9.56 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 out of 5 stars 1,734

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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
1,734 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2014
First Sentence: Two twists of smoke at a time of year too warm for cottage fires surprise us at first light, or they at least surprise those of us who’ve not been up to mischief in the dark.

Change is coming and events collide which will change life forever. Three strangers have built a hut and hearth to let the residents of a small, framing village know they are there. This act of smoke from a first fire gives them the right to stay there. The second event is the burning of Master Kent’s dovecote, hayloft and stables. The third event is the arrival of Edmund Jordan and his men. Jordan is cousin to Kent’s late wife. As the land came from her and there were no children, it now legally belongs to Jordan.

It can be frustrating to read a book in which neither the setting nor the time period are undefined. Crace does, however, drop enough hints that one might surmise the setting is England and the time probably in the 1500s/1600s, although it could be a bit later. The story is almost all narrative, which readers can find very boring. However, the book is fascinating and the story compelling.

We are provided with wonderful descriptions and rich language suitable to the time. “Our great task each and every year is to defend ourselves against hunger and defeat with implements and tools. The clamor deafens us. But that is how we have to live our lives.” Even the meaning of words which are arcane are easy enough to understand, and it does add veracity to the narrator.

Crace has written the story on many levels. He describes life in an agrarian setting and struggle to survive. We learn of the coming transition from crops to sheep and the impact that will have on the villagers. But we also see the dreadful results foolish actions can bring, not only to the perpetrators but to the entire village.

Walter Thirsk, the protagonist, brings life to the story as we are told it through his eyes. We learn both his history and that of the villagers. Through his telling, it becomes a very human story; one that has increasing dread. You sense the fear and uncertainty of the villagers, and of Walter. And yet, in the end, it is a story of survival and perseverance.

“Harvest” isn’t a long read, but it is an impactful one. It is also an allegory as to how those in authority can use rumors to raise suspicion and mistrust in order to achieve their own ends. “Today I’m seeing Privilege, in its high hat. Then comes Suffering: The Guilty and the innocent, including beasts. Then Malice follows, wielding its great stick. And, afterward, invisibly, Despair is riding its lame horse.” Lest you think it is a depressing book, it is not. It is compelling and one I found I couldn’t put down.

HARVEST (Hist Fiction/Mystery–Walter Thirsk-Britain–Undefined/pre-18th century) – Ex
Crace, Jim - Standalone
Vintage, 2013
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Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2013
This book gave a terrific description of life in Scotland, probably, back in the early 19th Century when feudal farming systems were coming to an end. It was written in the voice of a man who had worked in the city for a wealthy guy and then went with him and his new wife to the country to help manage the wife’s estate. So the narrator is an educated man, but not upper class. He fell in love with one of the peasant women and moved from the manor house to her cottage in the village and began to learn how to do the hard work of farming. Thus he is on the scene to describe the village's involvement in an incident that brings change to everyone from the lord of the manor down to the poorest peasant.

I think the author did a wonderful job of tracing the events and the consequences of the people's decisions which lead to more complications until the morality of the situation weighs everyone down and makes everyone culpable in the consequences. I couldn't help but imagine very similar circumstances occurring all over Scotland during the terrible days of "the Clearances", when people who had worked their traditional fields for generations were forced off the land so the owners could more profitably run sheep. The descriptions of the work, the homes, the tools, the pleasures, and the pains of the country people of that era are fascinating and create empathy for their choices and mistakes.

Up to a point the story is engrossing and moves quickly, but then the narrator starts to ruminate too much over his feelings for the place, and what his choices are. It bogs down in memories and descriptions and loses track of the characters. I think this was the author’s way of saying good-by to his literary life because he has acknowledged to the world that this is his last book. In the end the narrator walks off to an unknown future, a metaphor for Jim Crace's own situation. His writing career began auspiciously but his later books were not up to the early ones, and, unfortunately, he’s burning his bridges with this one.
6 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2013
Harvest was an easy read though I suspect a difficult book to write. It is presented entirely from the POV of the main character and is his story of how the idyllic village in which he lives is attacked and destroyed in a matter of days by fear and suspicion. No time or place is named; however, everything is intended to evoke a remote, late-medieval English? farming village. The language, its turn of phrase, vocabulary and sensibility are all tools of the author to establish and reinforce this time and setting. While an admirable effort, the writing veers dangerously close to overdone and overwrought, a sort of Middle Ages purple prose. I can only imagine the difficulty of staying "in character" for the author. That said, the story is interesting, if not terribly original: strangers appear in the midst of a closed society; both different and bad things begin to happen; the villagers close ranks and are led by their fears and prejudices until all is destroyed and our protagonist limps out of the ashes toward whatever his new life will hold. An enjoyable read but we've all seen this movie before, under numerous titles.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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S & B
5.0 out of 5 stars This is Awesome!
Reviewed in India on November 26, 2018
I wanted this book for so long... The writing is just gorgeous... The atmosphere is really captivating... Brilliant piece of literature.
Lucy
5.0 out of 5 stars ... very quickly and was just what I expected in perfect condition. I love it
Reviewed in Canada on February 18, 2015
This arrived very quickly and was just what I expected in perfect condition. I love it.
S. Sefrin
5.0 out of 5 stars Überwältigend
Reviewed in Germany on July 19, 2015
Das Werk ist, wie alle Bücher, die den Impac Award erhalten haben - Weltliteratur.
Es ist etwas schwierig zu lesen aufgrund der egenwilligen Wortwahl. Aber es ist grandious durch die mystische Stimmung, die es von Anfang an erzeugt, die Sprachgewalt, das Feingefühl des Icherzählers, u.v.m. Sehr empfehlenswert.
The Mother Booker
5.0 out of 5 stars Wholly Land!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 3, 2015
HARVEST
By
Jim Crace

Jim Crace’s book Harvest is a rich harvest of pure golden soil and toil metaphors. I loved this book and the writing is so poetic and beautiful. The characters are perfectly portrayed and I found myself enthralled and enchanted by his intoxicating imagery of the countryside and an intriguing historical past.

The narrator Walter Thirsk who has recently lost his beloved wife depicts the life of the cottagers he has spent the previous twelve years befriending. They are ‘The beneficiaries of Nature’s Dowry.’ And Walter’s quest for genuine acceptance amongst them is unrelenting. He considers him self to be neither ‘Brave nor Blond’; which for Walter is a major set back as he struggles to become at one with his peers.

Their qualities are many and they live by a simple country code without a judge, a jury, a priest or a church. Rain is ‘Washing out impurities’ and when children dive deep below the growing stalks to weed they are ‘Dealing with the grievances.’

‘The local women are like land fenced in; assigned and spoken for, the freehold of their fathers, then their husbands, then their sons.’ And when an outsider walks amongst them she is ‘Like any pigeon, any hare; she is fair game.’

The season is changing with their lives. Their Master, Charles Kent has plans with his cousin Edmund Jordan, he is a man who can talk sense but ‘Sometimes sense is colder than an icicle.’ And the cottager’s ‘Best riches are their ignorance of wealth.’

It is harvest time and everyone must play their part in reaping the best barley to ensure sustenance for the coming winter. Crimes are committed and the cottager’s brows are furrowed. They seek consolation. ‘The moon is our dance master. He has us move in unison. He has us trill and carol in each other’s ears until the stars themselves have swollen and have ripened to our cries. We find consolation sowing seed!’

So many secrets! ‘Secrets are like pregnancies hereabouts. You can hide them for a while but then they start screaming.’

I found this book to be truly thought provoking and the biblical interpretations that can be drawn from the author’s poetic soul are poignant. The cottagers’ lives are enriched by loyalty, family, obedience, acceptance, endurance and gratitude. But so much can transpire in the space of even days in a person’s life and their lives are blighted by deceit, betrayal, cruelty, greed and ultimately grave injustice.

This book is the story of the human condition which can be found in every corner of the globe.
The harvest is in,
The truth is out
The Masters’ sin
Is what it’s all about!
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Peter Scott
5.0 out of 5 stars Another excellent read from Crace
Reviewed in Italy on May 10, 2013
Great sense of place, as to be expected from Crace. If you enjoyed any of his other work, this is recommended.