Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley

I first heard about Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley through Katie Clapham’s Receipt from the Bookshop substack. She mentioned in one of her weekly receipts that a new release was coming and I immediately earmarked it. I really enjoyed Starve Acre – it completely sucked me in and I couldn’t get enough of it. I was so engrossed I was even trying to read it in the dark back seat of a car journey while travelling down the M4. (FYI, I don’t recommend dark + flashing central reservation lights + motion.) My love of Starve Acre may have ultimately been my downfall with Barrowbeck. I liked it, but I didn’t love it in the same way.

I’ve taken some time to mull on it, and I’m making myself dig into it a bit more.

Barrowbeck

Barrowbeck is set around a village in the north of England. I’m not entirely clear if it exists as a village in real life – I can see a Barrow Beck located between Keswick and Penrith, but whether the tales that derive in the book are drawn from real history, folklore, fiction or a blend of all three, I couldn’t say. We are lead on a journey over time, starting in the very early ages through to 2041. Each chapter moves forward in time and there are echoes of the past that resurface.

From the outset, Barrowbeck is a place whose residents are troubled by angry gods. Settlers arrive in Barrowbeck having been victims of a bloody massacre in their previous home. They shelter in a cave, waiting for the snow to melt, and hope that the river goddess Arfon will be kind to them. As the book progresses, the river, cave, land (whether it be fertile or barren) and weather continue to feature in the folklore and short stories of Barrowbeck. All the while there is a sense of unease and discomfort that no one can quite put their finger on. There are strange happenings and occurrences, some more sinister than others. As the book reaches its climax, Barrowbeck is faced with disaster and an apocalyptic reckoning.

Book marketing and Radio 4

I think a couple of things set me up for the wobble I had on this one. The first is the marketing of the book. Taglines such as ‘the new master of menace’ led me to believe the book would be much darker than I found it to be. The same is true of the blurb inside the jacket. Descriptions of some of the stories sounded deliciously dark and creepy so that I was expecting more folk horror than I got, which then led me to feel a bit disappointed. So, a mixture of my expectations and the book’s marketing is at play here.

The second is that it wasn’t until I got going with the book that I discovered it had originally been a series of short stories commissioned by Radio 4. Had I known that from the beginning I think my entire outlook on the book would have been different. Many of the short stories are excellent, and several stand out for me because I was left wanting more.

Short stories

The opening story ‘First Footing’ was one I would have loved to stay with. This was admittedly influenced by me believing it was the beginning of a singular novel. I found myself disappointed that we would never revisit Mabglas and Dewin and the surviving clan. I was ready to settle in with ‘First Footing’ and their gritty, bloody survival against the odds and Gods. Echoes of them continue throughout the ensuing stories, and I did enjoy looking out for lots of different character names and reoccurring village locations.

Some of the stories made me think of other texts. ‘The Strangest Case’ got me thinking about His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnett. It details a peculiar murder case that all but one man sees as open and closed. He pens a letter to his brother of his attempts to convince the closeminded authorities to examine it in further detail. ‘After the Fair’ comes to a climax of the kind that reminds me of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery. ‘An Afternoon of Cake and Lemonade’ so seemingly innocent and then oh-my-God!!!, while ‘Sisters’ had a wonderful folklore ending. ‘Covenant’ was fantastic at starting to bring things full circle and heading towards disaster. I loved that we got to see Benedict as a modern day Dewin from ‘First Footing’.

Final verdict

In writing all this, I can plainly see how much I enjoyed the book. I can also see that the stories contained all the elements of what I love about gothic folk fiction, and indeed what I adored about Starve Acre. Overall, I think the key for me was that I had wanted (or falsely expected) them to be a more strongly linked, continuous narrative, so that the tension continued to ratchet up and up and up.

I absolutely would recommend Barrowbeck to people on the basis of explaining the context of its origins first. I am sure if I’d known about the Radio 4 short story series I would have parked my Starve Acre expectations, so lesson learned for me! It has still left me wanting to read more of Andrew Michael Hurley’s novels, particularly The Loney.