Clear - by Carys Davies (Paperback)

About the Book

1843. On a remote Scottish island, Ivar, the sole occupant, leads a life of quiet isolation until the day he finds a man unconscious on the beach below the cliffs. The newcomer is John Ferguson, an impoverished church minister sent to evict Ivar and turn the island into grazing land for sheep. Unaware of the stranger's intentions, Ivar takes him into his home, and in spite of the two men having no common language, a fragile bond begins to form between them. Meanwhile on the mainland, John's wife Mary anxiously awaits news of his mission.

Book Synopsis

"Tender, riveting, and inventive is Clear, the newest offering and masterpiece from the brilliant Carys Davies. It will take your breath away...What a thrill." --Sarah Jessica Parker

Winner of the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, 2024 Bookmark Festival Book of the Year, and Wales Book of the Year

A Vogue, The Washington Post, NPR, Kirkus Reviews, The Guardian, and The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Best Book of the Year

A "daring and necessary...sophisticated and playful" (The New York Times) novel from an award-winning writer, Clear is the story of a minister dispatched to a remote island to "clear" its last remaining inhabitant--an unforgettable tale of resilience, change, and hope.

John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland--Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, he decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted.

Shortly after John reaches the island, he falls down a cliff and is found, unconscious and badly injured, by Ivar who takes him home and tends to his wounds. "Clear chronicles the surprising bond that develops between these two men...pack[ing] a great deal of power into a compact tale" (The Wall Street Journal) about connection, home, and hope--in which John begins to learn Ivar's language, and Ivar sees himself reflected through the eyes of another person for the first time in decades.

Unfolding during the final stages of the infamous Scottish Clearances--a period of the 19th century which saw whole communities of the rural poor driven off the land in a relentless program of forced evictions--this singular novel explores what binds us together in the face of insurmountable difference, the way history shapes our deepest convictions, and how the human spirit can endure despite all odds. Moving and unpredictable, "a love letter to the scorching power of language" (The Guardian), Clear is "a jewel of a novel" (The Washington Post)--a profound and unforgettable read.

Review Quotes

A Vogue, Washington Post, NPR, Kirkus, and Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year.

A New York Times Book Review Top 10 Historical Fiction Book of 2024.

Winner of the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, 2024 Bookmark Festival Book of the Year, and Wales Book of the Year.

Shortlisted for the Europese Literatuurprijs, Scotland's National Book Awards, Prix Femina, Prix Médicis, HWA Gold Crown Award, Winston Graham Prize, Saltire Society Literary Award, and Booksellers Association Books Are My Bag Award.

"A jewel of a new novel...It's hard to overstate how deftly and viscerally Davies's prose conveys this world. We see and hear and smell it, shiver with it ...I dare not give away more of this splendidly imagined story, while longing to quote from it at greater length...I found myself rereading the novel's last pages with wonder, wanting to revisit (and reconsider) just how they unfold."
--The Washington Post

"Daring and necessary...the storytelling is sophisticated and playful...Clear contemplates fictional resuscitations, opening itself, and its readers, to the ghosts of lost ideas."
--The New York Times Book Review

"A love letter to the scorching power of language, a power that Davies has long understood. She writes with amazing economy: in a few words she can summon worlds...Davies is a writer of immense talent and deep humanity, capable of balancing devastating audacity with equally devastating restraint."
--The Guardian

"[A] gripping novel from Welsh novelist Carys Davies, Clear...feels a bit like a thriller set against a history lesson rendered fantastically vivid...raising questions of belonging, ownership, and how we forge the bonds between people and place that are really durable."
--Vogue

"In sparse but often gorgeous prose, Clear chronicles the surprising bond that develops between these two men, first through Ivar's tender ministrations to the injured stranger...Davies manages to pack a great deal of power into her compact tale."
--The Wall Street Journal

"The most tender, beautiful story about the connection between two people and what they must overcome to find each other - in every sense of the word."
--NPR

"There is great pleasure to be found of Davies's clear and calm prose, her wry asides and deep love of language, and in the book's quiet optimism. It is a slim, masterfully carved gem of a story that you won't easily forget: slip it into your pocket."
--Evening Standard

"Davies' characteristically nimble evocation of place is in evidence throughout...Amid the barbarity of mass evictions, with all their modern resonances, Davies ultimately offers us a story that is hopeful and humane."
--Irish Times

"A lucid and stylish prose writer, Davies is excellent at revealing characters through the language they use and through the gestures and tonal shifts that betray their weaknesses, their prejudices and hollow sentiments...what Clear asks of us in its final pages is a leap of faith more usual in fables and fairy tales--there is also something gratifying in the suggestion, however unlikely, that love, even love of the most improbable kind, can still blossom in a world run by men like Lowrie and Strachan."
--Times Literary Supplement

"Another epic in miniature. Davies manages to pack in more drama and nuance into 160 pages than other authors manage in novels twice that length."
--The Spectator

"Her own language is a marvel of eloquent restraint."
--The Observer

"Wonderfully atmospheric writing."
--Sunday Times

"Painterly...Her grasp of historical mood rarely falters, and each scene is set with minimal description, leaving space for the reader's imagination ...Clear is a memorable and beautifully told tale."
--Scottish Herald

"[Davies] writes epics in miniature...a tender, humane book."
--Times (London)

"This is a gem of a novel that shines with tenderness and courage, and shimmers with the love of a long-lost language...Davies deftly spins out the tension of the situation while delicately describing the developing comradeship between the two men. Sublime."
--Daily Mail

"Historical fact can often lack tangible emotion, but here Davies fills in great swathes of it with the most minimalist of brush-strokes. What she has produced is an atmospheric marvel, because as spare and pared-down as Clear is, it overflows with all the fundamentals of humanity: life, love, connection, empathy. Her characters are so vividly alive, so full of feeling that you can almost hear their hearts pounding."
--i Newspaper

"Clear keeps the reader on tenterhooks; the ending is both unexpected and satisfying...[Davies has a] rare sense of openness, balance and compassion and a finely-tuned ear. Her books powerfully evoke a sense of place."
--Country and Town House

"The magic is in Davies's handling of her material. She packs a huge amount in...and never says more than is needed...To deliver an epic story in miniature like this­-in fewer than 150 pages-is an exceptional achievement."
--The Critic

"A gem of a novel...a perfectly pitched tale of human connection set at the intersection of two of Scotland's greatest historic social upheavals...Davies neatly reveals the dilemmas facing each of her protagonists in prose that's lucid and faultlessly paced...Clear is something to savour."­
--New Zealand Herald

"[A] great, sturdy piece of writing, from a writer who deserves a lot more attention, who has been steadily creating terrific novels and short stories for years, and Clear is as good a place as any to hop on board."
--Bookmunch

"The sheer beauty of Clear--with its perfect sentences, its austere tenderness, and its quiet sense of disquiet--feels timeless ... A poignant, profound depiction of both solitude and connection. Carys Davies has written a masterful, discreetly sublime book."
--Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Trust and In the Distance

"This intriguing and inventive story escorts the reader to an unexpectedly joyous ending that hints at our contemporary interest in new ideas of what a family might be. The writing style is one of clarity and reserved sensibility punctuated with an end-game needle jab. Not to be missed."
--Annie Proulx, author of Barkskins

"Clear is a compact, taut and brilliant novel with an ingenious premise: one man is sent to evict another from his land, but suddenly requires the second man's aid. Everything gets more complicated from there. The book is about belonging, a dying language, secrets, and a pistol in a box. I loved every page."
--Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land

"Clear is a love letter to a vanished way of life, to a landscape, and to human relationships. Captivating, tender, and satisfying, this is a novel to be savoured."
--Claire Fuller, author of Bitter Orange and The Memory of Animals

"A wonderfully humane and moving depiction of loneliness and the connections forged between strangers that transcend all barriers, even language."
--Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures

"With Clear, Carys Davies has again done brilliantly what she does best - saying most by saying least. She has the rare gift of eloquent brevity -- Clear is astute, moving, unexpected."
--Penelope Lively, author of The Family Garden and Life in the Garden

"An exquisite, hopeful masterpiece ... my favorite book of 2024 and probably many more years to come."
--Rachel Joyce, author of Miss Benson's Beetle and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

"With her characteristically buoyant prose and brisk sense of plotting, Davies crafts a humane tale about individuals struggling to maintain dignity beneath competing systems of disenfranchisement...A deft and graceful yarn about language, love, and rebellion against the inhumane forces of history."
--Kirkus (starred review)