2026/004: The Wood at Midwinter — Susanna Clarke

2026/004: The Wood at Midwinter — Susanna Clarke

All woods join up with all other woods.
    All are one wood.
        And in that wood all times join up with all other times.
            All is one moment. [loc. 140]

A short story, more beautifully calligraphed and illustrated in print (to judge by photos online) but still lovely on a Kindle. It's apparently set in the same world as Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell^*, but I didn't spot any overlap, and it certainly doesn't require familiarity with the earlier, much longer work.

Ysolde Scott has devised a cunning stratagem: she'll arrange visits, and let her sister Merowdis -- possibly a saint, possibly neurodivergent, possibly just antisocial -- alight en route and spend time in the woods, where she is happiest. ( Read more... )