annieb123's Review of Thunderstone

by Nancy Campbell

Can a tiny vehicle provide the space to rebuild a life?

Thunderstone: a sculpted & fearless memoir from the award-winning author of Fifty Words for Snow - a Waterstones Book of the Month.

‘It was believed lightning would not strike a house that held a thunderstone. And so these fossils were placed on top of clocks, under floorboards, over stable doors... But there are some storms that thunderstones cannot prevent.’

In the wake of a traumatic lockdown, Nancy Campbell buys an old caravan and drives it into a strip of neglected woodland between a canal and railway. It is the first home she has ever owned. It will not move again.

As summer begins, Nancy embraces the challenge of how to live well in a space in which possessions and emotions often threaten to tumble. And as illness and uncertainty loom once more, it is this anchored van that will bring her solace and hope.

An intimate journal across the span of a defining summer, Thunderstone is a celebration of transformation; an invitation to approach life with imagination and to embrace change bravely.

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Thunderstone is a memoir adapted from a journal written by Nancy Campbell after a breakup and during the covid lockdown. Hardcover edition released in fourth quarter 2022 by Elliott & Thompson, upcoming reformat and release in paperback and ebook formats are due out in third and second quarter 2023 respectively. It's 224 pages (in hardcover).

This is a short read, and it feels nearly transcribed directly from the dated journal entries. This gives the whole a very intimate and honest feel, sometimes quite jarringly so. The author describes the breakdown of her partnership and the health challenges her former partner faced from a stroke and recovery. In the end, Ms. Campbell moves into a stationary caravan/camper and spends a year writing, philosophizing, and trying to come to grips with the reality of the madness the world endured under covid.

There's a lyrical quality to the whole and I was fascinated to find that daily entries were engaging even for less-than-electrifying occasions: fixing her water supply, stocking the larder, meeting her neighbors. It would have been a very different book from a less adept wordsmith.

Four stars. This would be a good selection for public library acquisition, book club review, buddy read, or solo reading.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Reading updates

13 April, 2023: Started reading

13 April, 2023: Finished reading

13 April, 2023: Reviewed