Fayne by Ann-Marie MacDonald

 

Fayne by Ann Marie MacDonald.

Published 17th August 2023 by Tramp Press.

From the cover of the book:

Fayne, a vast moated castle, lies to the misty southern border of Scotland, ruled by the Lord Henry Bell, Seventeenth Baron of the DC de Fayne, Peer of Her Majesty’s Realm of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The mysterious Lord Bell keeps to his rooms by day, appearing briefly at night to dote over his beloved and peculiarly gifted child. 

But even with all her gifts – intelligence, wit and strength of character – can Charlotte overcome the violently strict boundaries of contemporary society and establish her own place in the world?

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Charlotte Bell, daughter of Lord Henry Bell, Seventeenth Baron of the DC de Fayne, has grown up in the wild border region between England and Scotland on the vast, boggy estate of Fayne. She is a gifted child, driven by the need to learn all she can, but has been kept away from the world outside of Fayne by her doting father because of her 'condition'. 

On her twelfth birthday, her father goes against tradition when it comes to female offspring and hires a tutor for her to broaden her knowledge. The things she learns inspire her to want more than the isolated existence that is her lot, and when her father tells her that there is a 'cure' for her condition she looks forward to following her dreams. Instead, this leads to a chain of events that uncover dark secrets at the heart of the Bell family.

Fayne is a sweeping and ambitious novel set in nineteenth century Scotland. At the beginning of the story you meet the wonderful character Charlotte Bell, who has been born with a mysterious 'condition' that keeps her apart from the world outside. She spends her days in the company of a small group of servants, including her nurse Mrs Knox and the strange Bryn who has a close connection with the bog that surrounds their home. Charlotte's fiercely protective father lives a nocturnal existence, and she has never known any other family, believing her older brother died in childhood and her mother did not survive giving birth to her. 

Charlotte is smart and curious, with an astounding ability to retain information, and she soon outgrows her father's library of classical tomes. In an unexpected twist Lord Henry decides to break tradition by employing a tutor to live at Fayne, which opens up Charlotte's mind to scientific and mathematical concepts beyond her experience - it also sets her on the path of questioning exactly what happened to her mother and older brother, who stare balefully at her from a grand portrait in the remote castle.

The heart of the story is Charlotte's 'condition', which is gradually revealed, and the life she leads in isolation is one that has come about through secrets and deceit within the Bell family. For Charlotte, her life is a normal one, but her characteristics have distorted the limited freedoms she can expect more than she knows. As the story unfolds, MacDonald follows both Charlotte's experiences, and those of her American heiress mother Mae, in dual timelines that bleed into each other, and lay bare the way the truth has been subverted to maintain appearances. Mae's letters to her friend Taffy back home are particularly heart-rending, delving into pain and desperation as time goes on, and Charlotte's naivety hits you hard. Many of the scenes described are difficult to read when it comes to the barbaric treatment of Charlotte, Mae, and a number of other (mostly female) characters, but there is love, warmth, and humour too. Charlotte's budding relationship with her friend Gwendoline is especially touching.

For me, the best parts are those which centre around the atmospheric environs of Fayne itself, which oozes with Gothic vibes and underlying magic and mysticism - which have significant bearing on the final destination. There are times when I felt the exploration of the gritty side of Victorian Edinburgh would have been better saved for a different novel, and some of Mae's story could have been condensed to maintain pace. Charlotte is the most important character, and a few literary nips and tucks would have been beneficial in keeping the focus on her.

There is no doubt that this the slowest of slow-burn novels. so expect to be in for the long haul for its treasures to be revealed. It weighs in at a mighty 736 pages, and touches on a myriad of subjects around gender identity, expectation, isolation, and discrimination in Victorian Britain with enormous skill. I really enjoyed how MacDonald uses mystery and cleverly reflects her themes through the timelines, and the way she echoes a state of in-between in Charlotte's life and the curious location of Fayne itself is superb. This thrums with whispers of well-loved classics that have stood the test of time, and if a Victorian novel with a twist is your bag you will adore this book.

Fayne is available to buy now in ebook and paperback.

Thank you to Tramp Press for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Helen Richardson PR for inviting me to be part of this blog tour. 

About the author:

ANN-MARIE MACDONALD is a novelist, playwright, actor, and broadcast host. She was born in the former West Germany. After graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, she moved to Toronto where she distinguished herself as an actor and playwright. Her first play won the Governor General’s Award, the Chalmers Award and the Canadian Authors’ Association Award. 

In 1996, her first novel Fall on Your Knees became an international bestseller, was translated into nineteen languages and sold three million copies. It won the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Fiction, the People’s Choice Award and the Libris Award. In 2002, it became an Oprah’s Book Club title. In 2003,The Way the Crow Flies appeared, and in 2014, Adult Onset, both of which also enjoyed immense international success. 

In 2019 Ann-Marie MacDonald was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contribution to the arts and her LGBTQ2S+ activism. She is married to theatre director, Alisa Palmer, with whom she has two children