The Sherlock & Pages Book Club began in March 2024 after supporters and friends of the shop from around the world asked for us to create a reading community to share our passion for nature, history and the arts. Our book picks are both fiction and non-fiction and we announce the latest selections around 5 weeks in advance of a recorded discussion session which is shared online and which book club members can contribute to in advance. We try to keep these selections aligned with the values of Sherlock & Pages and to challenge ourselves as readers, to discover new stories and authors. Keep an eye on our instagram page for regular announcement or join the Sherlock & Pages Book Club on Facebook for discussions with other members from around the world.
'A long-time confidante of the rain and snow, I am ninety years old. The rain and snow have weathered me, and I too have weathered them.'
So begins this epic novel, Sherlock & Pages first ever Book Club pick.
At the end of the twentieth century an old woman sits among the birch trees and reflects on the joys and tragedies that have befallen her people. A member of the Evenki tribe who wander the forests of north-eastern China, hers was a life lived in close sympathy with nature at its most beautiful and cruel. Then, in the 1930s, the intimate, secluded world of the tribe is shattered when the Japanese army invades China. The Evenki cannot avoid being pulled into the brutal conflict that marks the beginning of the end of life as they know it.
This is part of the Vintage Earth series, a collection of novels to transform our relationship with the natural world. Each one is a work of creative activism, a blast of fresh air, a seed from which change can grow. The books in this series reconnect us to the planet we inhabit - and must protect.