Every reader will tell you that there are books they liked, books they loved and books they couldn’t escape… stories which got under their skin and stayed with them long after they turned the final page.

Diane Setterfield’s ‘Once Upon a River’ is one of those books, sweeping readers along both the literal and fictional currents of the River Thames.

Slowly and carefully Setterfield crafts a beautiful narrative exploring the power of love, loss and our innate ability to deceive ourselves when these feelings are in play, especially in relation to those we care about most.

Opening on a dark winter’s night, the warmth of a local pub is disrupted when the door bangs open to reveal a beat-up stranger, clutching the body of a young girl. A young girl who miraculously starts breathing again… and so begins the mystery, who is the girl, where is she from and how did she return from the dead?

Exploring the divide between the real and the supernatural, Setterfield’s novel follows the flow of the river that sits at its heart. First, a gently meandering stream slowly introduces us to each character and their connection to the girl, before picking up the pace and rising to a rushing torrent, as the characters come together in the final climatic chapters.

At first, we simply touch the surface of each character and their immediate, impulsive reaction to the girl; the healer, who swore never to marry, but longs to care for the child as her own, the man who found her on the riverbank and craves the family he once dreamt of, the parents, adrift since their child vanished in the night, and the Grandfather seeking to right the wrongs of a son he refuses to give up on.

But as the story progresses, we delve into the depths to discover the motivations that drive each of these characters, and their mysterious connection to a silent child who miraculously breathed again.

So, if you like beautifully crafted mysteries, that leave you both satisfied and desperate for more, then I would highly recommend diving into ‘Once Upon a River.’

E