It might be a bit niche, but there’s something about polyphonic novels set in a tight geographical location but ranging though time that I really like. I loved Alan Moore’s Voice of The Fire, Andrew Michael Hurley’s Barrowbeck and now Sarah Hall’s Helm. It’s a really good evocation of a place and the people who inhabit it over thousands of years, culminating in a glorious soaring sequence that will live long in the memory, all told in distinct voices and some excellent prose.

A wild epic of folklore exploring the mythic figure of Helm, manifesting in human life and experience as a wind that can drive a person mad. This ranges over time and people for the entirety of human history beyond now into the future. It is slightly sinister and weirdly alluring. It reads at times a little like an epic poem. The writing style gives the feeling of a creepy, everlasting omniscience and a sense of something weird and always slightly out of reach. You have to let yourself go into the flows and eddies of this book, and when you do, it's a richly rewarding reading experience.

'Helm' is one of those novels that's so phenomenally good it's difficult to know how to describe its excellence without reducing its power. Ambitious in its construct, breathtaking in its range, heartbreaking and hopeful in its message, 'Helm' had me captivated from the first page. The first sentence, in truth. Sarah Hall has somehow, by some magic, and her beautiful prose, brought a wind to life! A wind that has shaped humans and land alike through eons, a wind imbued with superstition, folklore, fear and timeless stories. Sarah Hall is basically a genius to be able to harness all this in her book. I am in awe.

Sarah Hall's latest novel, Helm, is a work about Britain's only names wind and the impact it has over centuries on people and the places it howls. Reading more like a collection of short stories connected by theme, Helm is both dazzling in it's scope but difficult to pin down. I felt blown through it's pages, carried on by Hall's majestic prose - do we expect anything less than brilliant from Hall? - and afterwards felt this a work one could easily dip in and out of and find something. There isn't much plot in the traditional sense, but there is much poetry in tone and style, and a true sense of the epic.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Absolutely superb, and surely Hall's best book. A wonderfully varied and powerful achievement and a novel of huge, polyphonic historical scope. Utterly mystified by its failure to get onto the Booker longlist; would be a worthy winner.

Bloody brilliant. From the wonderful opening, Helm swept me along through time and the Eden valley via both its wonderful, irreverent, moody, empathetic self as well as those of the characters whose lives (or chapters of their lives) were intertwined with Helm. I think this one will linger with me, my mind returning to the upsetting institutionalisation of Little Janni, the warrior priest Michael and his march of attrition to attempt to exorcise Helm, and to NayNay who lived a life. Probably the most unique book I will read this year.

Helm is the UK’s only named wind, localised to the Cross Fell area of Cumbria. Notable for its distinctive rolling, turbulent cloud formations and its destructive force, it has, over time, gathered myth, legend, and scientific study among its many stories.
In this exceptional action-painting of a book, Sarah Hall shows us humanity’s humility and hubris in the face of nature.
From Helm’s perspective, we see the emergence of human society across the Cumbrian wilds: the coming together of tribes, their terror in the face of the crashing gales, and their development of “trinkets” (buildings, vehicles, furniture, clothing) – all toys for Helm’s wild pleasure.
As Helm observes and wonders, we follow a handful of story threads, spread across time, each with Helm at its core: something to be placated, subdued, or studied. Each thread offers glimpses into the society of its time and the oscillating positions of women and men, science and belief, hope and despair, exuberance and restraint.
Helm is an amused and bemused observer, fascinated by the couplings and carnage played out below. A neolithic society seeks the final stone for their circle; a medieval exorcist climbs the hill to cast out the destructive demon Helm; men of science try to study or tame the wild spirit in more secular fashion; and a lone voice from the weather station wonders whether Helm can survive the attrition of climate change.
I absolutely loved this book. Hall paints such vivid pictures with few words, capturing the firing of synapses, the crash-zoom and montage of people in motion, heads full of dreams. The book is funny – particularly Helm’s droll reflections – moving, and thrilling, and each thread has its own tone and reality, each a convincing and satisfying short story of its own. They twist around and through each other, accumulating into a vivid study of our relationship with the full force of nature, something we have battled for as long as we’ve existed – and which, even now, we cannot control, only break.

🌬️ Helm 🌬️

Helm by Sarah Hall
Release Date: 28th August

Thanks @faberbooks and @netgalley for the e-ARC!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

📝 - Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind — a subject of folklore and awe, who has blasted the sublime landscape of the Eden Valley since the very dawn of time. Through the stories of those who’ve obsessed over this phenomenon, Helm’s extraordinary history is formed: the Neolithic tribe who tried to placate Helm, the Dark Age wizard priest who wanted to banish Helm, the Victorian steam engineer who attempted to capture Helm — and the farmer’s daughter who loved Helm. But now Dr Selima Sutar, surrounded by infinite clouds and measuring instruments in her observation hut, fears human pollution is killing Helm.

💭 - A truly brilliant read. Funny (at times), informative, and important. Hall personifies Helm beautifully, bringing a wind to life in a way I wouldn’t have thought possible. I loved the traversing across time, seeing how each time period treated Helm, glorifying it, studying it, or making use of it. While I can’t say I fully understood every part, that didn’t make the book any less enjoyable, which is a feat in itself. A really unique read, and one I’d recommend for fans of writing centred in nature, perhaps similar to North Woods or There Are Rivers in the Sky - two other nature-centric reads I thoroughly enjoyed.

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Helm is the only named wind in Britain and it resides in a part of Cumbria with a rich and long history, almost from the beginning of time. Helm has its own voice and story in this novel, as well as several other human voices and stories throughout the ages. The writing, as always with Sarah Hall, is poetic and fluid, and the subject just a little ‘off the wall’ but riveting nonetheless, in its message of how humankind is in danger of killing the plant we live on or at least destroying so much of what is essential to our survival. Helm is born at the beginning of time and has survived throughout aeons, doing its damage and fascinating mankind from worshiping the wind as a god to trying to control it, to pumping so much garbage into the atmosphere that Helm is in grave danger. Throughout, Helm is violent, yes, but also humorous, thoughtful and at times kind too. There is a strange magnetism in the writing and story here, an almost other worldly quality that keeps the reader engaged until the very last word.