Susanna Kearsley's Mariana is the sort of book you turn the last page of and give a contented sigh. Well, that's what I did at least. Much like The Winter Sea, Mariana is a work of historical fiction with two intertwined storylines and a strong romantic theme at its heart. It won the prestigious Catherine Cookson Literary Prize, and it's not difficult to see why as Kearsley certainly knows how to draw her reader into the story while the real world floats away. This is another story that not only moves backward and forward in time but so, too, does the main character. I tend to be skeptical of time travel stories outside the fantastical, and this story is meant to be grounded in reality, but as long as you're willing to suspend belief somewhat (and I am willing to do so for Kearsley), it works.
"I first saw the house in the summer of my fifth birthday."
An adventurous drive home after a holiday in Exeter was when Julia Beckett first spots Greywethers.
"It was a rather ordinary old farmhouse, large and square and solid, set back some distance from the road with a few unkempt trees dotted around for privacy. Its darkly glistening slate roof sloped down at an alarming angle to meet the weathered grey stone walls, the drab monotony of colour broken by twin redbrick chimneys and an abundance of large multi-paned windows, their frames painted freshly white."
When she sees it she knows it was her house, but it isn't just the daydreams of a little girl. Seventeen years later she once again comes upon it by chance and recognizes it immediately and feels the same affinity for it. But it isn't until after she turns thirty and comes into an unexpected inheritance that she is able to make it her own once again permanently. The small village welcomes her easily into its community and she quickly becomes friends with the local pub owner, a woman of her own age, a slightly cantankerous (though ultimately very likable) Scotsman who's both a gardener and poet, and the local lord of the manor to whom she's instantly attracted and the interest is reciprocated.
This sleepy little village seems to be hiding secrets, however. Julia stumbles across a shadowy figure on a large horse that seems to appear out of the mist, and stranger, she starts having dreamlike episodes where she slips into the past, a past she is entirely familiar with when she is there, but she can't quite understand when she is awake in the present. Mariana Farr is a young woman who has come to Greywethers from London where the Plague rages and has taken the life of her mother. Her uncle, a staunch Puritan agrees to take her in, but she feels more a prisoner than a member of the family. Although Charles has been restored to the throne, it's obvious her uncle has no love or loyalty for him. As a matter of fact her uncle's generally disagreeable.
Julia's episodes become more intense and frequent and soon she finds she can put herself into a dreamlike state where she willingly goes back in time. She becomes wrapped up in Mariana's life, and the lives of the few people around her that she cares for, particularly the Lord of Crofton Manor, a handsome man who rides a great grey horse. Is it reincarnation? Was Juliana once Mariana? Are their genes intermixed and their lives twined together and remembered? Julia's present day life seems to mimic Mariana's in some subtle and not so subtle ways. She becomes certain that she was once Mariana and feels she remembers this former life, yet with her blossoming romance with Geoff, the present day lord of Crofton Hall, the connection seems broken. He either hasn't yet remembered his ancestor, with whom he shares a stricking resemblance, or chooses not to, which leaves Julia confused and uncertain and caring more for her former life and her passionate love for 16th century Robert de Mornay.
Alas, you can't live in the past, no matter how seductive it is, and soon the past will be cut off from Julia. Not everyone gets a happy ending, and in the tumultuous period Mariana lives in, true happiness and enduring love is elusive. So, Mariana is a lovely story of love lost and love found and second chances, which are always nice to believe in. I really enjoyed this story, admittedly it is total escapism, but it's nice sometimes to find happy endings in literature--not just satisfactory endings but really happy ones. So, do I go looking for more of her books (and she also writes thrillers under a pen name), or do I wait for more of her work to be published here in the US? Susanna Kearsley is on my list of comfort reads for certain.