Fleeing the dark undercurrents of contemporary Britain, Hilary Byrd takes refuge in a hill station in South India. There he finds solace in life’s simple pleasures, travelling by rickshaw around the small town and staying in a mission house beside the local presbytery, where the Padre and his adoptive daughter Priscilla have taken him under their wing.
As his friendship with the young woman grows, Hilary begins to wonder whether his purpose lies in this new relationship. But religious tensions are brewing and the mission house may not be the safe haven it seems.
The Mission House boldly and imaginatively interrogates the fractures between faith and non-belief, young and old, imperial past and nationalistic present. Tenderly subversive and meticulously crafted, it is a deeply human story of the wonders and terrors of connection in a modern world.
andThe Mission House
‘Tender, playful, piercing, light-footed—this is an irresistible novel.’
‘A subtle, masterly treasure.‘
‘A compelling read. Carys Davies has an amazing gift for summoning up a place, a situation, the characters. Her skill is that of brevity, nailing a personality with a few lines of dialogue, saying most by saying least.’
‘A wonderfully written tale of subtle repetitions from multiple points of view set in India - it has the simplicity of fairy tale, the heft of fable and contains all the human sadness and joy of misfits.’
‘An astonishingly assured and gripping piece of work and a worthy follow-up to West. Davies has a voice unlike any I’ve read: clean, otherworldly, eerily original, and capable of devastating effect.’
‘I felt, reading this extraordinary novel, that the thorough oddity of its chief characters, their strange innocence, amounts to a revolt, on our behalf too, against the stupidity, cruelty, fanaticism and bigoted violence of the world in which they more or less successfully live their eccentric lives.’
‘The Mission House is an absolute triumph. That rare type of book—resoundingly tender, and gently heart-wrenching. Carys Davies doesn’t drop a sentence. I was deeply moved, and spellbound.’
‘Carys Davies is a writer of immense talent.’
‘Carys Davies deserves every accolade she has received.’
‘Davies’ artistry is matched by her storytelling powers.’
‘Carys Davies is a deft, audacious visionary.’
‘Carys Davies’ enthralling fictions carry us across time and continents, and bring interior worlds to life.’
‘Davies’ lapidary prose is a marvel—she creates worlds in a few deft pen strokes.’
‘Brilliantly crafted…Having subtly prepared the ground, Davies finally springs the jaws of her plot, revealing, heartbreakingly, to us, and the tragically blinkered Hilary, what kind of story this really is.‘
‘A delicately political tale that keeps the real drama largely below the surface.’
‘Subtle with nuance and alive with immediacy, again adroitly using small-scale effects to enlarge understanding and extend empathy, the resulting novel is a masterly achievement.’
‘A novel about the pitfalls of human connection in contemporary India…An interesting take on a familiar trope…The Mission House truthfully reveals that the new realities of India will increasingly have their revenge on these tired old romances.’
‘The Mission House puts [the genre of] Raj fiction to fresh purposes…the prevailing tone modulates between gentle humour and low key poignancy. The small, often dashed hopes of the under-privileged…are affectingly noted…Embroidered on a placard in the bungalow is the motto “Lean Not on Thine Own Understanding”. It’s a message that pervades the book. Misunderstandings and misinterpretations fatefully mesh. Sudden shifts into another’s mind tilt things into unsettling new perspectives…Subtle with nuance and alive with immediacy, again adroitly using small-scale effects to enlarge understanding and extend empathy, the resulting novel is a masterly achievement.’
‘A delicately political tale that keeps the real drama largely below the surface, leaving the reader to gauge the extent of the protagonist’s self-deluding solipsism.’
‘Brilliantly crafted…Having subtly prepared the ground, Davies finally springs the jaws of her plot, revealing, heartbreakingly, to us, and the tragically blinkered Hilary, what kind of story this really is.‘
‘This beautifully crafted story reveals the clash between old and new ways, imperial past and nationalistic present.‘
‘Davies weaves her story with brevity and to devastating effect, drawing a portrait of an odd group of lonely people struggling to find a connection in a changing world’
‘No words are wasted, yet her conjuring of place and character are rich and vivid. Davies’s tale feels timeless…a message of moral responsibility framed as quiet tragedy.‘
‘This quiet novel, set in India at the turn of the century, explores weighty topics such as imperialism, religious intolerance and mental health but in a blessedly unassuming manner. Following middle-aged bachelor Hilary Byrd as he seeks refuge from his unfulfilled life in the UK, Davies gently excavates modern India’s intersection with its history through Byrd’s eyes. His relationships, including a fraught and unrequited love for his housekeeper, are deftly drawn and the characters deeply and warmly described.’
‘[A] jewel of a novel…Fascinating.’
‘At first glance a simply told tale, The Mission House has a twisted brilliance that is mesmerising.’
‘[An] effortlessly readable novel about vulnerable private lives being tossed around by the wild currents of history.’
‘Superb.’
‘Carys Davies is unlike anyone else I have ever read. She can say in one sublime sentence what most of us struggle to come up with in a page. And The Mission House is another triumph.’
‘Precise and wonderful…An entrancing read…The Mission House feels at once historic and contemporary, old and new, known and unknown, and in its unobtrusive way it invites its reader—as the very best writing always does—to ask questions about the world we live in and the part we play in it.’
‘A stunning, understated novel…Told from alternating perspectives, this captivating, nuanced tale balances a pervading sense of melancholy with pockets of wry humor. Davies’s masterly elegy is not to be missed.’
‘Beautifully done, with the same same resonant concision of Carys Davies’s fine first novel, West, it’s a haunting picture of colonialism’s long legacy.’
‘Lightly yet deftly crafted, hovering in tone somewhere between comedy, tragedy and fable, Welsh author Davies’ understated second novel considers isolated characters and their yearnings against the historical long view and looming political violence.’
‘Davies creates a world that is magical yet daubed with menace. Nuanced characters, lush descriptions of South India, and an incisive look at class and religion make for a rich and layered novel.’
‘[A] skillful drama of well-meant misunderstandings and cultural divisions. The interactions are polite and repressed, but the story is galvanised by the “passion simmering under the surface of things. Always, every once in a while, the lid blowing off, and nothing, it seemed, that anyone could do to stop it happening.”’
‘A whiff of E. M. Forster hangs over the luminous new novel from an O’Connor Prize winner. Hilary Byrd, a dissolute British man, escapes the coop of his native country on his own passage to India, where he basks in the rhythms and textures of his adventure, renting a guest house in a presbytery and forging bonds with his rickshaw driver and the Padre’s daughter. And yet religious tensions stalk his safehouse in an elegant tale that probes the jagged shadows of colonialism. Davies is a writer to watch—and to savour.’
‘[A] singular voice…Davies’ writing is sublime…saying something about life’s trajectory in a few lines…Prose to disappear into.‘
