Book Review: The book is structured as a series of interlinked short stories

This is the world of Folk by Zoe Gilbert. A world where a girl marries a water bull, where a misty water spirit becomes mother to a loving daughter, where a song from a violin evokes memories so powerful they tear a family apart. And that’s just the way things are.

The book is structured as a series of interlinked short stories that lie, layer after layer, over each other to form the cumulative history of Neverness.

We meet the same characters multiple times over different eras in their lives, and follow generations of Neverness families through their troubled lives.

The effect is compelling - the richness and depth of myths, combined with the vivid characterisation of real humans inhabiting them.

It does all tend towards the moody, the macabre and the miserable in Neverness. Even a story about a surprising, passionate affair becomes infused with claustrophobia and gloom.

Death is a constant presence, things have a tendency to end in tears and the course of love - true or otherwise - certainly never runs smooth.

But these stories are told with such playful freshness, they feel weirdly uplifting despite their melancholy.

Gilbert’s writing is beautiful, particularly on landscape and the natural world.

From its gorse maze of winding spiny tunnels, to the caves of sticky, cold mist, to the whispering forest, the topography of Neverness is rendered so vividly, we can touch it. This gorgeous nature writing grounds the story; we feel the earth beneath our feet, the soil between our toes.

But it’s like a dream before you realise you’re dreaming - things are off-kilter, unreliable, they veer off in unlikely directions.

This is a book that keeps you on your toes while also blanketing you in the comforting, familiar, elemental world of fairy tales. It’s a seductive combination.

This is delicious, imaginative storytelling that feels at once primal and brand new.