A review by stephen
Helm by Sarah Hall

4.0

This is unlike anything I’ve read and redefines what it means for a novel to have a sense of place. 

We start by meeting Helm, the only named wind in England, who has been around for so long that it has seen many generations of humans come and go. Several of these stories are told and we see the different ways we have interacted with the environment over time. Whether that is trying to control or change or just understand it. 

I really enjoyed the personality of Helm, was so distinctive and inventive while still somehow being believable for a wind. Of the humans, Selima’s arc was my favourite. The isolation of studying something most people don’t understand resonated with the remoteness of the location and her personal life really well. 

As someone who lives not far away from Eden valley I also felt very at home reading about events in Shap and jokes about Todmorden! 

Overall, this feels like a timeless climate novel that explores our past as well and present times and while it does think about the future it’s much more hopeful than most climate novels. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for the arc