It was only after I started Andrew Miller’s new novel, set at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, that I realized how little historical fiction I read.  I’m not sure why that is.  Great stories can be set in any context, so there must be some reason why I avoid “period novels”.  In some cases it’s no more complex than being unable to relate to the setting in any meaningful way and that inability impeding my enjoyment. Ishiguro’s last book, The Buried Giant, set in the Dark Ages and a world of ogres, was a perfect example of this.  I enjoyed it less because I couldn’t imagine myself into the setting.

I discovered Now We Shall Be Entirely Free while waiting to see a friend at the publisher’s office.  The opening pages – brilliantly written and as seductive as any detective story – gripped me right away and I had to find out more about the mysterious, sick, and damaged soldier returning home to England from Spain in 1809.  The rest of the novel – part love story, part thriller – lived up to that wonderful first chapter.  Miller writes beautifully, with every word and phrase chosen and weighted with the care of a poet.  That alone would make me recommend this novel, but it’s also a surprisingly topical and resonant book about the cruel injuries of war, the enduring trauma of violence, and the curative powers of love.