Ghosts of the past

The Devil’s Footprints is a classic Jekyll and Hyde story, without the physical transformation wrought in the original. It is set in the haunting background of the Scottish countryside, a template that offers immediate rewards to a writer of mystery, and Burnside exploits it to full effect here.

The fishing town of Coldhaven is known to the outside world for the “devil’s footprints”, spooky footmarks left after a particularly snowy night one December, long ago. But to the residents of this sleepy town, personal tales of passion and failure are a dime a dozen, ready to be picked up and regurgitated.

The book’s narrator, Michael Gardiner, himself harbours a few secrets, revealing early on that he killed, albeit not wanting to, a bully during childhood. That bully’s sister is the latest talk of the town. One morning, Moira Birnie woke up, packed her two little sons and 14-year-old daughter in the car, drove to a point, asked her daughter to alight, went ahead and then burned herself and her two sons in the car.

Why did she do it? And why was the daughter allowed to get away? Michael is gripped by this random crime — because he has a hunch that he is the father of Hazel, daughter of Moira with whom he had a passionate affair long ago. With so many ghosts to keep him company, it is hardly surprising that Michael turns his quiet existence upside down to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Burnside weaves the personal trauma of Michael’s realisation with the folkloric strand of Coldhaven’s dark history to tease out the legend behind the “devil’s footprints.” The perfidy of the characters contrasted with the breathtaking calm and scenic beauty of the landscape are evoked with great skill. Burnside is an acclaimed poet and indeed, his prose shimmers with the silence that resides at the centre of all poetry.

THE DEVIL’S FOOTPRINTS
John Burnside
Anchor
Pages 240
$14.95

Familial feuds

The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for last year’s Man Booker Prize, but lost out to Aravind Adiga’s White Tiger. Philip Hensher has been a judge in the past, so the defeat must have been especially disheartening, and Hensher has made no secret of this fact. But on strict merit, the defeat was well-deserved.

This is the story of two families, the Glovers and the Sellerses. It is 1974, and the Sellers family has moved into the house opposite the Glovers’ in Sheffield, England. The novel will track the families’ relationships with one another, and those between their individual members. With the ’70s as backdrop in the beginning, Hensher has space to gradually chart the rise of Margaret Thatcher.

But really, it’s about the families. Katherine Glover has decided to start work at a florist’s, and her husband, Malcolm, suspects she is having an affair with the shop’s proprietor. On the day the Sellerses are moving in, Malcolm has left the family briefly, so there is considerable tension in the Glover household.

Tim, the youngest Glover kid, keeps a pet snake, unknown to his family. Alice Sellers spots the boy in the opposite window while she is shifting furniture. She informs Katherine, naturally, when the latter comes to visit, resulting in a dramatic scene in which the poor snake is killed by Tim’s mother.

This act of cruelty is one of many set pieces Hensher builds that will resonate later. Tim will go on to become a radical who writes furious letters to the Guardian. In many ways, he is the protagonist — which is a pity, since the other kids, Glover and Sellers, are no less interesting.

And that is the problem with Northern Clemency. Striving to locate the tiny joys and cruelties of family life, Hensher seems unable to see the wood for the trees. There are well-written scenes in a novel that fails to convey anything substantial.

THE NORTHERN CLEMENCY
Philip Hensher
Knopf
Pages 608
$ 26.95