The novel begins with the now 69 year old Maud Stearne, whose father was committed to an asylum after murdering a local person when she was a child. The overarching religion of the time is controlling and powerful, with locals attending the ornate medieval St Guthlaf's church, with its ornate demons and fallen angels. The isolated manor house of Wake's End is owned by local landowner, historian and scholar Edmund Stearne, in the midst of Guthlaf's fen, an area bursting with superstitions, folklore, myths and legends, of the dreaded 'fen tigers' a savage people doctoring their 'ague' with a powerful home brewed opium. This is a glorious piece of Edwardian gothic historical fiction from Michelle Paver, it has elements of horror and madness, set in the remote village of Wakenhyrst, surrounded by the fens of Suffolk at the start of the 20th century.
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