Daughter of the Stones
A dominant patriarch. His tragic mental decline. His youngest daughter, distraught over his incomprehensible repudiation of her. Walsh looks back to the Iron Age roots of the King Lear legend and connects it to a present-day family experiencing similar division and strife. Caitlin King, owner of the Hill Fort Café in the village of Goldenwych near the Welsh border, finds her beloved father, Larry, much changed following a mini stroke. Oddly, he insists that she and her two sisters take prominent roles in a musical he wrote himself.
Having grown up honoring pagan traditions, Caitlin has been trying to ignore the cracks in her relationship with her scornful vicar fiancé, and the familial stress sets her further on edge. In the same locale in 862 BCE, Cordelia acts as high priestess for the Dobvnni tribe. After her father, King Lear, experiences a terrible head injury, he undergoes a disturbing personality shift, demanding his daughters prove their loyalty to him. Both women experience distressing visions and catch glimpses of each other across time.
This novel is richly woven with ancient lore and cultural references to life in Iron Age Britain and different versions of the story of King Lear and his daughters, but with the lens shifted to the female viewpoint. The earlier timeline has a touching love story, the pain of betrayal, and a triumphant, awe-inspiring curse. Caitlin’s engagement to a man who denigrates her is hard to rationalize, and some elements initially feel superfluous to the plot, but all becomes clear later, when multiple secrets about longstanding King family tensions are revealed. Both narratives hold their own weight. There is a shorter fairy-tale story braided with the others which doesn’t feel critically important, but in total, this is a well-crafted, mystical time-slip saga. Barbara Erskine fans should take note.
