To the finder of this book:
Hello and congratulations! You have not only found yourself a good book, but a
whole community of booklovers dedicated to sharing books with one another and
the world at large. I hope that you will write a journal entry letting me
know that the book has been found, and that you'll stick around a bit and get
to know Bookcrossing. Feel free to read and keep this book, or to pass it on
to a friend or even set it out "in the wild" for someone else to find like
you did. And if you do choose to join, I hope you'll consider using me,
karen07814, as your referring member. Happy reading!


Painting by numbers and masterpiece, Archer and Jenkins

Bookray for this one is as follows:

TheLostBook UK post UK (int'l if necessary)
KiwiinEngland UK post UK/EU
Arturogrande UK post int'l <----book is here
WickedWordz in US post US

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

over to you

Gotcha! This book has just arrived. I'm looking forward to it as I recently "discovered" Robin Jenkins by reading The Changeling - a small and un-prepossessing book that was one of the best I've read this year. Many thanks karen07814 for sharing.

Another fascinating little novel from Jenkins. He's an economical writer, squeezing a lot into his 180 pages. The Cone-gatherers is tightly plotted, beautifully characterised and possesses a beauty both in its use of symbolism and its descriptions of the natural world. The backdrop is the distant Second World War, against which the lifestyles and attitudes of the characters are precarious.

Jenkins is very good at shades of grey and at deliniating motivations. He unpicks the reasons for his characters' actions so delicately that it's easy to not notice his mastery.

I'll be looking for the rest of Jenkins's novels next. This one will travel on to KiwiinEngland (in Dublin) tomorrow. Thanks, karen07814!

Safely arrived in Dublin, thanks Karen07814 for starting the ray and TheLostBook for posting it on (and the postcard). No thanks to Royal Mail and An Post for taking 9 days to get a the book from Scotland to Ireland.

I loved the way the landscape was described so well you could see the insects and smell the trees. The characters were heading towards an ending that will stay in my mind long after I closed the back cover.

It was fascinating to see the role of class within the claustrophobic atmosphere of the small village and house.

Thank you for starting this ray karen07814

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:







Posted via Royal Mail (large letter rate).

Thank you. I've got a couple of ring books ahead of it, but I'll try not to hold it up.

This was one of the best books I've read this year, in spite of the rather old-fashioned prose style. The sense of place was fabulously well drawn - as Kiwiinengland said, you could smell the trees.
It is a short book, but there is so much said in so few pages. The war is very distant for the cone gathering brothers working on a remote Scottish estate, but the spectre of fascism is symbolised in their relationships to tthe lady of the manor, who believes herself to be a Christian but treats the men appallingly, and the increasingly unhinged gamekeeper, Duror.
I would suggest that the brilliant foreword to the book is read afterwards, so as not to give anything away.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful book. I'm still waiting for an address from WickedWordz before passing it on.

I'm sending this to Cinderess as part of the Surprise Bookring.

This looks like a good read, thanks very much!

Too determinedly grim to be an enjoyable read. An obvious metaphor is used to describe Callum; clumsy and accident prone on the ground while graceful and fearless high in trees...

Taking to the mini-meet tonight :-)

Picked up at the mini-meet at The Duke's Cut on Thursday night. Looks good, so onto TBR.

Taking a few books along to add to the bookshelf at The Rock Hotel in Gibraltar. The bookshelf can be found to the right of the reception desk :-)