A review of Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen Powell

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARDS 2023

A creative re-imagining of the short life of Emily Brontë, one of England’s greatest writers

Isolated from society, the Brontë children spend all their time inventing elaborate fictional realms or roaming the wild moors above their family home in Yorkshire. When the time comes for them to venture out into the world to earn a living, each of them struggles to adapt, but for Emily the change is catastrophic. Torn from the landscape she loves and no longer able to immerse herself in the fantastical world of Gondal that she and her younger sister Anne have created, she is simply unable to function.

As a child, Emily witnessed a rare natural phenomenon. After weeks of rain, the peaty soil on Crow Hill became so sodden that the earth exploded. Since then, her life has been dogged by tragedy and repeated failures. Her sisters are desperate to escape their unsatisfactory work as governesses and now the life of her brother Branwell, the hope of the family, is in turmoil. To the outside world, Emily appears taciturn, unexceptional; but beneath the surface her mind is in a creative ferment, ready to burst forth. As the pressure on her grows, another violent phenomenon is about to take place, one that will fuse her imaginary world of Gondal with the landscape Emily loves so passionately, and which will change the literary world forever.

ISBN 10: 1787704815 / ISBN 13: 9781787704817

Published by Europa Editions, 2023, paperback

The landscape opening before me like an enormous map, the black branches of an immense ash tree clutching at the horizon. The fields were edged with hawthorn, bare of leaves yet still throwing thorny sprays up to the blue December sky. The haw berries were flat crimson like the dead blood of the year, but the rosehips were a sign of hope, little lamps shining from the hedgerows. A fat robin watched from a fence post, its eye bright with curiosity, and in a thicket of oak, the glossy leaves of the holly gleamed like a secret. When the frost was hard, we slipped and slid across the frozen brown ruts by the plough and the whole world glittered crazily, buzzards crying overhead. Sometimes the mist hung low, and we walked in silence across the fields, listening to the dripping of the trees, the muffled sound of horse hooves from the lane. Ahead of me, girls rising out of the mist like wraiths, then disappearing.

Fifteen Wild Decembers is an evocative story of six siblings named Bronte, three of them surviving sisters who would each write masterpieces: Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre, Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights, and Anne Bronte -The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.  The Bronte siblings are each an enigma and with Karen Powell's beautiful writing Fifteen Wild Decembers sheds perhaps a different perspective on the siblings and their works. The land, the changing seasons, the weather, the Yorkshire Moors and Haworth Parsonage serve as magical inspiration to the creativity of these special sisters.

The reader is along for the ride. Told from Emily Bronte's perspective as the sisters along with brother Branwell write Gondal as children. The sisters go to Brussels, and the most fun to read are the chapters where the sisters each write and publish a novel unbeknownst to them that will stand the test of time. The death of brother Branwell tests the faith of an aging Reverend Bronte. Through it all, the family's love for each other is remarkable and inspiring to read within the pages of Fifteen Wild Decembers.

For more information on the author or to purchase a book, Europa Editions