The Winter Station

Finished January 23

The Winter Station by Jody Shields

This historical novel is set in 1910 in the city of Kharbin. Kharbin was a major railway outpost in northern China that was under Russian-rule at the time. The main character in this novel is Baron von Budberg, a man who grew up in St. Petersburg and was educated as a doctor. He traveled to Manchuria in 1904 to serve as a medic in the imperial army, and then found himself in the new city of Kharbin. Kharbin was established in Manchuria in 1898 by order of the Russian czar. The Baron was appointed medical commissioner for the city by the general in charge, General Khorvat. 

As the book opens, the Baron is investigating a report of bodies discovered outside the train station. The man saw the bodies taken away in a cart, but the bodies weren't taken to the nearby hospital, nor reported to him by the men who took them. This begins the story of a plague coming to the city that winter. The Baron learns that the bodies were of Chinese men, which raises other questions, like whether the Chinese authorities had ordered the removal of the bodies and what rank the men were. 

The man who informed the Baron of the incident is Andreev, a man known as a government informer, who also traded on the black market. 

The Baron is also a man who exists between the two worlds of Russian and Chinese people. He is married to a much younger Chinese woman, Li Ju, who had been a servant before they formed a relationship. He has made the effort to learn Chinese, and can understand enough to translate. He is also taking calligraphy classes from a master in the art. 

As the existence of a transmissible disease that is almost always fatal become more and more evident, the community, and the Baron himself, find themselves torn between sides in many arenas. There is traditional Chinese medicine versus Western medical science, distrust between the two communities, and the widespread hiding of bodies to avoid being ostracized which hinders the ability to fully understand the spread. The Baron sometimes finds himself at odds with others in his profession, in particular a newly arrived Western-educated Dr. Wu Lien-teh, who is put in charge by the Chinese, but who speaks neither Mandarin nor Russian, and who conducts the hospital meetings in English, the language that he speaks and that most of the other doctors understand. 

He finds one ally among his peers, a French doctor names Messonier, with whom he has a regular meeting centered around a shared love and interest in tea. 

We see the doctors arguing about the disease, what it is, and how to treat and protect others from it. The Baron is an advocate for masks and disinfectant, practices which after some discussion get adopted. 

The Baron has great depth of character here, we see his compassion, and his observation skills. We also see how his ties to the community from different contacts, from Andreev, to a Chinese dwarf, give him additional information on the situation. We also see how the competitive nature of some doctors keep them from working well as a whole. 

This novel is a slow-moving one, similar to the two Chinese practices that the Baron has taken on, calligraphy, and tea. As we see both his work life and his personal life, we get drawn into the story ourselves.  

Heart of Ice

Finished May 23

Heart of Ice by Alys Clare

This is the ninth book in the series set around Hawkenlye Abbey, but the first one that I've read. An interesting inclusion at the beginning of the novel is a map of Mediterranean trade routes which also includes arrows to the far east along the Silk Road, to to Congo basin, and up the coast to England.

The time is February 1194, and the book begins with people journeying from further away. Along with the people travels a disease and the book details its transmission from person to person. Thus we see the significance of the map right away. From here the story stays in England, and we see how the disease has taken hold of a small number of people near the Abbey, which is known for its healing spring and the nuns and monks who look after the ill that are drawn there. 

Besides those at the abbey itself, we see some of the local people. From the abbess Helewise and the local knight, Sir Josse d'Acquin to the local sheriff, Gervase de Gifford, down to the servant and laboring class, many people have a role to play here.

There is also an interesting element of the paranormal through both a piece of jewelry, and a local woman who has been recognized as having certain skills, many of them associated with healing, and we see her take a journey of learning amongst her people, the ancient Celts, and return to her home with greater knowledge and power, just in time to find her skills useful in the current health crisis.

I really enjoyed this book, both the intellectual investigations of the various characters as they look for the source of the disease to try to mitigate its spread, and the clues they follow regarding the young man killed for a reason they aren't aware of. We see how the story links to larger regional issues, with struggles for leadership in England and France. A very interesting and engrossing read. 

Hamnet

Finished October 6
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

This book imagines the life of William Shakespeare's family in a new way, focusing on his wife and children. The book jumps from 1596 when Hamnet died at the age of eleven back to 1580 with William's first meeting with his wife Agnes (her real name in history is sometimes Agnes and sometimes Anne), their courtship, marriage, and growing family.
In real history the cause of Hamnet's death isn't specified, but the plague was an active disease in this time, with the theatres that Shakespeare's plays among others played in closing for a few months in "plague season" throughout the country.
When William first met Agnes, he was tutoring Latin and still living with his father, John, a glover. Here, we see their courtship, not necessarily approved of by either family, but occurring in places where they wouldn't draw a lot of attention.
Agnes is a very interesting character, a woman whose mother died when she and her brother were both young, who spent a lot of time outdoors, who gained a knowledge of the use of herbs and plants from her mother and what her mother left behind, who had a kestrel and had bees. She is a strong personality and more than an equal to her husband. She also has a sixth sense. She knows the future in many cases, just through touching someone and once married starts running a natural healing business from her home. She senses her husband's challenges, particularly with his domineering and sometimes violent father, and works to push him to what she can sense his future will be, even if it causes issues within their relationship.
The young Hamnet is an exuberant boy, but very close to his twin sister Judith, and as Judith gets sick near the beginning of the book, he worries and tries to find help for her, a situation that is very traumatic for him. As I read, knowing that Hamnet would not survive this illness, I felt for Agnes and William and watched how they dealt with this loss.
This book won the Women's Prize for Fiction award earlier this year, a well-deserved honour.