This is a multi-genre crossing novel that caught me by surprise and I felt as if I had to acclimatise myself to this strange beast of a book. I began by reading fast but kept on having to go back to make sure I had understood what was happening until I accepted this was going to be a slowly savoured read. It is beautifully written historical fiction, with elements of the supernatural and the probing of mysteries and expert world building underpinned with whimsy. Merrick Tremayne has been crippled whilst operating as a smuggler for the East India Company. He is living with his brother, Charles, on the crumbling Heligan Estate in Cornwall where crows bartar their ill gotten gains, statues move and trees explode, setting off a multitude of fires. Charles threatens Merrick with the asylum or to take up the position of a parson. The India Office wish Merrick to undertake a expedition to Peru to acquire cinchona cuttings. There has been a terrible outbreak of malaria in India for which quinine is required. This offer is absurd, Merrick is physically not capable, Peru is a dangerous place with men from recent expeditions murdered and other lurking problems. Merrick's precarious position and the persuasive qualities of his friends Clem and Minna push him to agree to go. He has family connections to Peru and his experience as a gardener makes him ideal. He would rather die in Peru than live in misery at home.

This is a story of friendship, love, magic, different cultures, intrigue, tradition and adventure. The journey by ship involves Merrick teaching the art of taking cuttings, the preponderance of sea sickness and a decision by the pregnant Minna to not join the quest. Martel, who seems to have an inexplicable hold on Raphael, insists that Merrick and Clem are guided by Raphael. There is more to Raphael than they expected. He is from New Bethlehem, or Bedlam, and is a priest. Watching the evolving relationship between Raphael and Merrick is a joy to observe. Bedlam is infused with myth, folklore and superstition, the villagers cannot entering the Forbidden Forest or cross the salt line. The Martayuk are sacred stone statues revered by the community shrouded in mysticism and wonder. However, Raphael can cross the salt line as a priest. With strange happenings, the question arises as to how it is possible that Raphael knows Merrick's grandfather when he is patently too young? Is it possible to lose time? Will Merrick be able to return with the cuttings and Raphael?

This is a novel that grows on you the more you read of it. It has such beautiful prose with wonderful descriptions such as of Peru and coffee. The imagery is vivid and vibrant, ensnaring the reader with ease. However, it may take a little while to get hooked on the story, so perseverance is essential. The author has clearly done her research on this period and Peru. It is the characters that cemented my love for this kooky book and the relationship between Merrick and Raphael is outlined with subtlety, flair and expertise. The novel also touches on important issues of the day such as race, treatment of native communities, imperialism, politics and religion. A disarming read, which as I reflect upon it, is quite likely to induce me to up my rating to 5 stars. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.

I loved this book. Merrick Tremayne, forced to retire from the India office due to a leg injury which has left him unable to walk far. He is living with his brother, temporarily in their dilapidated ancestral Cornish estate Heligan ( I assume the same as the Lost Gardens of Heligan). Then to avoid the prospect of settling to a boring career is given a chance to try and break the Peruvian monopoly on quinine by bringing back cuttings from the Cinchona tree. This opportunity comes in the form of an old friend Clem who Merrick knew from when they where in the military together.

This review will be posted on my blog the day before publication (Wed 12th July, see link below)
There is also a familial connection with Peru as Merrick's grandfather spent time there back before Merrick was born, and many of the plants in the garden and greenhouses, and a mysterious statue where brought back from there.

When there they meet a guide and priest Raphael and are guided up to the village of New Bethlehem, also called Bedlam and there the magic really starts. Well it creeps up upon you and before you know it you are seeing the impossible appearing very normal and almost mundane. Including pollen that glows whenever it is moved (think bioluminescent plankton you get in some tropical waters) and statues that move and are assumed to be clockwork.

Its a fairly slow read but it is beautifully written, so much so that it is pretty easy to suspend disbelief.
I think this book would be enjoyed by anybody who read and enjoyed the Watchmaker of Filigree Street but its not a per-requisite as this book works as a stand alone book. Also if you like a bit of magical realism I think this book may be for you. Don't expect it to be fast paced though, it is a book to be savored.

I loved Natasha Pulley's first book, "The Watchmaker of Filigree Street", so I was delighted to get the opportunity to read her second pre-publication.. I was a bit disappointed, as it didn't seem to "come together" until the very end, although the story was interesting, It had a "middle trilogy" feel to it, and I wonder if her next book will return to Filigree Street, which was alluded to at the end of "The Bedlam Stacks". This is very much a personal opinion though, and I will definitely hand-sell the book as a good holiday read.

I loved the authors first book, though I will have to admit it was actually recommended to me by a customer. I was absolutely delighted to be given a chance to read Bedlam Stacks. Absolutely brilliant concept and quite different from a lot of what I have been reading lately. Very hard to pigeonhole this writer, I'm tempted to compare her to a modern day H G Wells.. Rather difficult to read in this format but worth a little perseverance. Pleased to see the open ending so we can be sure there is more to come Will review closer to publication and will definitely recommend. I'm looking forward to more.

Having heard good things about her previous book, I was looking forward to this second novel. I wasn't disappointed.
It is a very unusual, multi-genre story, full of wonderful magic realism aspects.
It is part historical adventure, part fantasy. I was reminded of Conan Doyle's Lost Horizon or a search for mythical El Dorado.
The plot involves a small party of smugglers setting out to acquire the cuttings of quinine trees in Peru in the late 19th century. Like the modern drugs trade, the quinine plantations are guarded and controlled by secret cartels so the quest is not easy. The plantations turn out to be in a magical-mythical region and here is where the story slowly unfolds and weaves its magic.
The author keeps the reader under the magicians spell, not sure if things are magic or simply trickery to protect the valuable merchandise.
As the plot develops we find everyone has a hidden agenda, and things spin out like a complex game of brinkmanship.
The book is very special and slowly works its magic on the reader, drawing you into this livid other-world.
Raphael, a central character, is a priest. We also come across unusual statues which seem to be able to move on their own - and for me there are echoes of questions relating to whether religious miracles are real, or trickery.
So, a rare and unusual book. Full of wonders and fantastical things. An unusual setting and plot, beautifully written.
Rather special, and highly recommended.

First off - I loved Watchmaker, adored it. So when I saw Bedlam Stacks I jumped at the chance to read it. Bedlam didn't disappoint.
It feels similar in style to Watchmaker in that its not rushed, the story unfolds in its own time, BUT it keeps you reading, keeps you gripped, its slow but not too slow. With a second great read Natasha Pulley has definitely found her place on my favourite authors list!

Let's be honest here, this was never going to be quite as good as The Watchmaker of Filigree street. Nothing could have followed that and been quite as good. This did eventually get the same feel to it that Filigree Street had, though it was slower to be as good. It was probably mostly because my expectations for it was too high, but I think it also took longer for the magic to really appear in the book. It was took normal, even when they got to Bedlam and started to see the pollen and the trees, it still didn't feel completely magical until lately on.

By the end of it, I was in love with it though. Not as much as Filigree Street but I still got a little bit of that same feeling. I think the reappearance of Keita helped. He's just such a fantastic character and I don't think I'd ever get bored of reading about him.

This book had some really interesting themes. The idea of language that came up in it was just so fascinating. The themes of translation and mistranslation and how much culture and belief is hard to translate when talking to foreigners. This book definitely stressed the point of how to really know and understand anything about a culture you have to fully embrace it.

I love this world of hidden magic so much. I can't wait for Natasha Pulley's next book.

The Bedlam Stacks, Natasha Pulley

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:  General fiction (adult)

I'm finding this a really hard book to review. Its so very different, very slow paced, very packed with detail, right down to minutiae of some things and yet bigger ones just glossed over. Parts I felt just kept the slow pacing and irritated me, and then I'd read something and want to know more. 

I loved the historical feel, felt very real. I was There with Merrick and Co, back in the 1800's, deep in the magical forests, filled with pollen lamps powered by clocks, pollen forests, whitewood that exploded, was light, filled with honeycomb holes and yet strong enough for the amazing homes they constructed, stories high. And of course later in the novel the fabulous place where the monks live which used so much of it. That was perfect.
There's the phoenix ducks, the glass formed from ancient eruptions on the mountain, and they way it created a kind of huge greenhouse. Oh there was so much almost whimsical magic here, not spells and sorcery but magic of a different kind.
Then of course the big ones, the Markayuq....such incredible, unusual, fantastical ideas everywhere in this book, which gave it a kind of steampunk whimsy married with very real time in UK/South American history. 

I liked Merrick, hated his awful brother, felt so sad that Merrick's future was dire when he worked so hard, and becameinjured in the course of his work.
I didn't like Clem, just found him arrogant posing as a friend to use Merrick. I didn't really know Minna, but she seemed a pleasant lady, and then there's Raphael....
I kind of wanted there to be more between him and Merrick, could feel something but it was vague and tenuous, slippery as silk, and nothing except a few minute strands at a possible connection slid through the story. 
I guess its the romance lover in me, I do so love to find that in a story and missed it.

I enjoyed meeting and knowing the other characters in the village, liked the accepting way they took in Merrick, their confidence in Raphael, their respect for the Markayuqs, the way some recalled his father and grandfather from so long before.
 
I put it aside a few times, found it too intense one moment and then too slow to continue the next. I know, I know, that's a real oxymoron, but its how I felt, and how I feel now looking back. I loved it - and then again I didn't. I felt vaguely unsatisfied at the ending, though it does bring things into a kind of closure I just kept wondering "what happens now?"  I can't see how it could have ended any other way though that would have made me happy.

Its one of those stories I'm glad I read, where parts will stay with me for ages, engraved into my memory and yet I know its not a story I'd reread. 

Stars: Five, a story I'm glad I read, full of fantastical themes but one which I won't re-read. 

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers

First of all, I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ever since I finished The Watchmaker of Filigree Street last July, this is the book I’ve been more excited to read than any other. Back before even the title had been announced, when all I knew about it was that Natasha Pulley was writing another book, this time about a priest and a gardener in Peru, featuring exploding ducks at some point – and even that much was just what I managed to glean from her tweets – I was already looking forward to it with every fibre of my being, because I can count on one hand the number of books I’ve ever read that captured my heart as instantly and completely as The Watchmaker of Filigree Street did. There’s something about Natasha Pulley’s writing style that just resonates with my entire soul: the painstakingly researched, intricate web of incredibly disparate historical and scientific details are a joy for the mind; the idiosyncrasies that make every character come alive, and the gentle, cosy relationships that unfurl between them, warm my heart to its depths; and the subtle touches of magic, woven together so gradually that you barely notice the process until they coalesce into an entire tapestry of wonders, bewitch my imagination in a way that hardly any other books quite manage. That same style, which captivated me so completely in Watchmaker, is just as much in evidence in The Bedlam Stacks, and I can say with no hesitation whatsoever that this book has firmly cemented Natasha Pulley as one of my all-time favourite authors.

The Bedlam Stacks itself is a slow caress of a book. As most of the other positive reviews on here have mentioned, it requires patience. I read it quite slowly to begin with, because the first half of the book is a gentle meander to be savoured, not rushed. Several chapters read almost like a travelogue, which suits me down to the ground, particularly when the landscapes described are so steeped in myths and traditions and history, but that’s certainly not all this book is. In fact, I read the last third of the book in one single sitting well after midnight, because while it’s somehow just as gentle and full of wonder as the preceding two thirds, it also ratchets up the pace and tension to a level where putting the book down became almost unthinkable. It’s a truly impressive balancing act.

There are two aspects of this book that need to be mentioned individually. First, the characters: as in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, each of the main characters is drawn in loving detail, with a distinct voice and quirks of personality that make each of them come alive instantly. There’s a cameo from a certain Watchmaker character who well and truly stole the show, and another character perhaps impressed me most with how vividly he came to life despite being described so briefly, given that he only appears in one single flashback chapter, but each and every one of the main characters stole my heart in their own way. Somehow, Natasha Pulley’s characters almost always manage to be quietly likeable, without becoming trite or blurring into each other. I’m also particularly fond of the way she writes dialogue - there are a number of offbeat, deadpan lines which just sound so incredibly human, and remind me of the way I tend to talk to my friends, and I’m always helplessly charmed by them.

And secondly: the magic. As I’ve already mentioned, the magic in this book creeps up on you gradually. There are so many unusual, little-known, borderline fantastical concepts in this book that are entirely based in history or science - the solar storm, the cinchona trees, the markayuq, to name a few - that when things that have no basis in reality, like the candle ivy, start appearing, or when perfectly real things start behaving in ways that they perhaps shouldn’t, it’s almost impossible to quite catch sight of the line separating reality from myth and magic. It’s immersive, and utterly captivating, with scenes scattered through the book that are so powerfully vivid that I know they’ll stay with me for a long, long time. I have to admit though, that for most of the book I thought I had the magic sussed - most of it is telegraphed reasonably strongly, and I thought that I’d managed to predict the majority of it fairly accurately. But there was one more aspect of it that took me completely and utterly by surprise when it was unveiled right as the book was drawing to a close. Just like with everything else, the hints pointing to it had been scattered through the entire book, but they were subtler, and the payoff took my breath clean away.

As for the story itself, I was surprised and delighted by how many of its themes were ones that I find particularly fascinating. There was an emphasis on language throughout, and several passages about translation that, as a professional translator myself, startled me with their perceptiveness and insight. But more than anything else, this is a book about borders - physical borders, uncrossable borders, arbitrary borders, cultural borders, spiritual borders, borders between people, temporal borders, and the ways those borders can be overcome, so that connections can be found and forged in the unlikeliest of places.

All in all, I would highly recommend The Bedlam Stacks to anyone who’s willing to take it for what it is: a fairly slow-paced, quietly magical, sometimes thrilling, wonderfully whimsical, deeply human tale of how time changes all of us, but some more than others. I truly cannot wait to see what Natasha Pulley will write next.