Tom Cox (1) (1979–)

Villager is Tom Cox's first novel. Cox is a writer of place who explores landscape and folklore, the world and its margins. His short story collection Help the Witch marries that sense of place and love of folklore with fictions that open the door a crack to the other places hidden just behind what we experience as real.

There is folklore in Villager, but also Bildungsroman, speculative fiction, diary writing and cultural reference points that span Mary Oliver, Mike Leigh, Oliver Postgate and Public Enemy. The story sprawls over time and place, slipping through the margins and brushing up against its own past and future. At its heart is a collection of songs written by an itinerant musician, and one ancient song in particular that echoes through the narrative.

It's a work of lush prose that captures the change in the seasons and the change in human relationships. Most of all it captures humanity's relationship to nature and how badly we get it wrong at times.

There is so much going on in this novel that I feel sure I'll read it again.… (mere)