The Slowworm's Song
by Andrew Miller
On This Page
Description
A Best Book Of 2022 (New Yorker)A Best Book Of Fall 2022 (Wall Street Journal)
From Costa Award-winning and Booker Prize-shortlisted author Andrew Miller comes a tender tale of guilt, trust, and a father's yearning to atone.
A harmless-looking letter drops onto the doormat in Stephen Rose's Somerset home like an unexploded bomb. It is a summons to an inquiry in Belfast, asking him to give testimony about his participation in a disastrous event during the Troubles–one he has long worked to show more forget.
An ailing ex-soldier and recovering alcoholic, Stephen has just begun to build a fragile bond with Maggie, the adult daughter he barely knows. For two years, he has worked hard to earn her trust, but the tragedy of what occurred back in the summer of 1982 has the power to destroy their new relationship. To buy time, he decides to write her an account of his life. Part explanation, part confession, it is also a love letter to Maggie.
When the moment comes that he must face what happened in Belfast that summer, the consequences are devastating––but ultimately liberating. Giving voice to those little heard in the literature of the Irish Troubles, The Slowworm's Song is an unforgettable story about a man who learns that the only way back from the underworld is up.
. show less
Tags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
Member Reviews
We read Stephen's journal, addressed in second person to his daughter. He started the journal after receiving a request from an Irish commission gathering information about incidents he was involved with as a member of the British Army in 1982. Stephen is 4 years into sobriety and both disturbed and delighted by his growing relationship with a daughter whose entire childhood he missed due to prison and drugs. Stephen's life seems both real and gossamer sheer, and the tragedy that marked his descent is one of few defining things about him.
The Slowworm's Song shares similar preoccupations with Andrew Miller's previous novel Now We Are Entirely Free. Once again he interrogates the issue of atrocities in warfare, this time from the perspective of a former soldier who made a terrible mistake in the heat of the moment in Northern Ireland and has never recovered from the guilt. Over the course of his life he took a partner and had a child but his alcoholism destroyed that relationship. When the story opens in 2011, Stephen Rose is in middle age, living on his dead father's farm in Somerset, working halfheartedly at a garden centre and alone except for the companionship of the local Quaker group. He is sober because he has a counsellor and medication from the Bristol Liver show more Institute, but he knows his sobriety is always tentative.
Into this half-life comes a summons to attend an inquiry into that long-ago event. For the benefit of readers not familiar with the exhumation of events from the Troubles era in Northern Ireland, Miller alludes to the controversial Saville Inquiry, set up in 1998 to investigate Bloody Sunday. At vast expense, it reported 12 years later, overturning the findings of a previous inquiry, said to be a whitewash. Stephen is not reassured by the bland tone of the letter.
On the brink of a tentative relationship with his now adult daughter Maggie, Stephen decides not to go, and explains why in what becomes a long confessional letter, written with the promise of truth because part of being sober is being honest.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/02/18/the-slowworms-song-2022-by-andrew-miller/ show less
Into this half-life comes a summons to attend an inquiry into that long-ago event. For the benefit of readers not familiar with the exhumation of events from the Troubles era in Northern Ireland, Miller alludes to the controversial Saville Inquiry, set up in 1998 to investigate Bloody Sunday. At vast expense, it reported 12 years later, overturning the findings of a previous inquiry, said to be a whitewash. Stephen is not reassured by the bland tone of the letter.
In the last paragraph I am informed, by way of reassurance, that the Commission is not a court of law, that its sessions are private, that it is not their intention anyone's evidence should form the basis of a prosecution. Am I reassured? Not very. The Saville Inquiry reported last year. You must have seen something about it on TV. Perhaps you were curious as to why so much time and money had been spent trying to make sense of fifteen minutes of mayhem in an Irish city forty years ago. (Someone in Parliament, a Tory MP, worked out how many Apache attack helicopters you could buy with the millions spent on the inquiry.) Anyway, the soldiers — those men of the Parachute Regiment involved in the shootings — were offered anonymity and told they could not incriminate themselves, but it already looks like that won't stop prosecutions. It's possible some of those soldiers, men in their sixties and seventies, will go to prison. (p.5-6)
On the brink of a tentative relationship with his now adult daughter Maggie, Stephen decides not to go, and explains why in what becomes a long confessional letter, written with the promise of truth because part of being sober is being honest.
And it's not — I hope — only selfishness, not just what I would lose. I don't believe you've given up on having a father, I think you need me to make the effort. I've failed in so much! I don't intend to fail in this, not for them, not so they can keep raking over the sorry history of that place. How about raking over some of what their own did? That should give them ten years' work. Why poke a stick in the best? I was sent there, Maggie, and younger than you are now. That makes me a criminal? And what if you came to look at me like that? If one day you were to look at me as some of the people in that room in Belfast would look at me? Could I survive it?
At last, an easy question!
I could not. (p.11)
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/02/18/the-slowworms-song-2022-by-andrew-miller/ show less
Stephen Rose grew up on the Somerset Levels as part of a Quaker community. At 16 he rebelled against this and joined the army. Now, 40 years later, he is a recovering alcoholic living from day to day in his former family home. When Stephen receives a letter from a Commission into the Troubles he knows that he needs to confront his past but doing so may end with him losing his daughter, the only positive in his life.
This book is amazing. It manages to run the full gamut of emotions and the reader is wanting Stephen to survive and move forward despite all that has happened. It is not a flamboyantly written tale, the prose is tight and yet the description is so vivid. I was floored by how much I loved this book!
This book is amazing. It manages to run the full gamut of emotions and the reader is wanting Stephen to survive and move forward despite all that has happened. It is not a flamboyantly written tale, the prose is tight and yet the description is so vivid. I was floored by how much I loved this book!
Now in his fifties, Stephen Rose has had a troubled life. He flunked out of school, joined the British Army and when sent to Belfast during the Troubles in 1982, he killed an unarmed teenager who he mistakenly thought had a weapon. After that, things went from bad to worse. He briefly married a woman and fathered a child, but then abandoned them as he spiraled into alcoholism and homelessness, with a brief stint in prison as well. Finally in AA, he is trying to take life one day at a time. Then the past returns to haunt him when he receives a summons to an inquiry investigating the British Army’s response during the Troubles.
Rather than respond to the summons, Stephen begins to write a letter to his daughter whom he is just beginning show more to know as a young adult. It is, he thinks, an attempt to be fully honest with her regarding his faults and regrets. Over the course of 250 pages, it results in him uncovering truths he had long kept buried even from himself. From the outset, Stephen Rose is a character who wins the heart of the reader. His brutal honesty is refreshing. He provides an interesting case study of post traumatic stress and its lasting aftermath. show less
Rather than respond to the summons, Stephen begins to write a letter to his daughter whom he is just beginning show more to know as a young adult. It is, he thinks, an attempt to be fully honest with her regarding his faults and regrets. Over the course of 250 pages, it results in him uncovering truths he had long kept buried even from himself. From the outset, Stephen Rose is a character who wins the heart of the reader. His brutal honesty is refreshing. He provides an interesting case study of post traumatic stress and its lasting aftermath. show less
I am still way behind with my reviews, as I finished this book over a week ago. It was a lucky find in the local library - it is pretty rare to see anything this new on the shelves.
I have now read all of Miller's novels, and for me this one is one of his best, though I am not convinced it is the kind of book that will appeal to prize juries. Its main protagonist Stephen Rose is a recovering alcoholic who lives in the Somerset home he inherited from his Quaker father, supporting himself with a part time job in a garden centre. His quiet routine is upset by a letter asking him to participate in an inquiry into an incident he was involved in as a young soldier in Belfast during the Troubles, in which he killed an unarmed man . He also has show more a fragile relationship with a daughter he barely knew as a child, who now lives nearby.
Miller draws this material together quite convincingly, and Stephen in particular emerges as a nuanced character. On balance I think this book just about deserves five stars. show less
I have now read all of Miller's novels, and for me this one is one of his best, though I am not convinced it is the kind of book that will appeal to prize juries. Its main protagonist Stephen Rose is a recovering alcoholic who lives in the Somerset home he inherited from his Quaker father, supporting himself with a part time job in a garden centre. His quiet routine is upset by a letter asking him to participate in an inquiry into an incident he was involved in as a young soldier in Belfast during the Troubles
Miller draws this material together quite convincingly, and Stephen in particular emerges as a nuanced character. On balance I think this book just about deserves five stars. show less
Depressing. A recovering alcoholic tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter and through a "letter" he writes her, we proceed through his sad life, and a tragic incident in Belfast years before when he was a soldier there, which he is trying to come to terms with. Hard to read but very well written.
I was disappointed in this book as I expected it to be more about the Troubles of Northern Ireland. Instead, the Troubles act as a backstory. Stephen Rose, son of a Quaker, enlisted in the Army and finds himself as a British soldier in Belfast. He has an encounter with a young man and shoots him killing him. Apparently the young man was not holding a gun and was not a threat; however, being a British soldier, he is not charged with any crime. Now, years later, he is a recovered alcoholic working in a nursery. He receives a notice that he is asked to appear at an inquiry in Belfast regarding the killing. Although he is assured this is a truth-finding mission, he will not be charged of any wrong doing. The sister of the young boy is to show more also make a statement.
At the same time, Stephen is attempting to build a relationship with Maggie, a daughter who has never been a part of his life. The story unfolds as a writing that Stephen is making for Maggie explaining his life. The backstory of his relationship with Evie, Maggie's mother unfolds.
It's not a bad story, just not what I expected. More of a character study thann a plot-driven book. show less
At the same time, Stephen is attempting to build a relationship with Maggie, a daughter who has never been a part of his life. The story unfolds as a writing that Stephen is making for Maggie explaining his life. The backstory of his relationship with Evie, Maggie's mother unfolds.
It's not a bad story, just not what I expected. More of a character study thann a plot-driven book. show less
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Books Read in 2023
5,547 works; 145 members
Author Information
11+ Works 4,126 Members
Awards and Honors
Distinctions
The Guardian Book of the Day (2022-02-12)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Slowworm's Song
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 107
- Popularity
- 302,108
- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 4
