‘Mothering Sunday’ is a compelling, beautiful gem of a novel

I always ask people what they're reading: people who come into my bookstore, friends, family, even total strangers. The woman sitting at the township pool with a book, the person next to me on the train.

I write down titles that are recommended. I do a little research to learn about them. Were they well-reviewed? Do they seem like my kind of book? My next step is often to request the book from the library, to check it out before I invest in it or stock it for my bookstore.

And that is how I came to a new novel I had never previously heard of, a small book called Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift (Knopf: 192 pages, $22.95). My quick research told me it had potential, so I requested it and began to read. The first few chapters were interesting, but not grabbing. Until about 30 pages in, I was on the verge of giving up. And then I caught the rhythm of the book and fell into it. And the rest: compelling and beautifully written.

And what is this small, lovely book about?

On the surface, it's the story of Jane Fairchild, a 22-year-old maid at an English estate in 1924. Jane is an orphan who has been placed "in service." She is living amid the devastating aftermath of World War I, in a house that is a shrunken version of its former grand self, bereft of its two sons, lost in the war, their rooms preserved "as is," their former inhabitants mere ghosts as Jane tiptoes in weekly to dust bedrooms turned into memorials.

We learn at the outset that Jane is involved in, let's call it, an affair with the young gentleman in the neighboring estate, he the remaining son of what was once a trio of boys. And Jane has been invited to spend the holiday known as Mothering Sunday (traditionally, the fourth Sunday of Lent) with this man, who has arranged to have the house to himself for the day.

That is the story we weave in and out of in this book, not following anything that could remotely be called a plot-line. Instead, it's a tapestry of words and images. In the bits of story we receive, we learn that Jane will live a long life, and that Jane will become a writer, a famous one.

And it is writing that the book is really about. Written by an author clearly enthralled with the magic and the power of words, it is a story of a character who is also enthralled with words, although she travels a hard road to a life of words: an orphan unexpectedly gifted with an education, fortunately employed by a family that allowed her access to their library, and then freed by circumstance to go forth into the wider world, to learn, to become, to create — to wield words to tell stories.

Graham Swift, author of "Mothering Sunday." Photo: Janus van den Eijnden.

At least that is what I have gotten out of this book in my first reading. I shall be reading it again, studying what it is that Swift is telling us about words, language, storytelling, and life, and sharing it with my writer friends, who will appreciate this as a story about writing, and my poet friends, who will appreciate his sparse, careful, and beautiful use of language.

As for the person who recommended the book, alas, I can't recall who it was! But thank you.

Do you have a book to recommend to Lynn? Email her at lynn@openbookphilly.com