Sacred Country
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"A remarkable novel... . The product of a truly original mind, whose inventions are magically unforseeable." - "The Times"
"Hypnotic... Curiously beautiful and strikingly original." - "Spectator"
"Rose Tremain writes comedy that can break your heart... Funny, absorbing and quite original. I've read nothing to touch it this year." - "Literary Review"
"Brilliant... . A strong, complex, unsentimental novel." - "TLS" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"Hypnotic... Curiously beautiful and strikingly original." - "Spectator"
"Rose Tremain writes comedy that can break your heart... Funny, absorbing and quite original. I've read nothing to touch it this year." - "Literary Review"
"Brilliant... . A strong, complex, unsentimental novel." - "TLS" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Daily Telegraph
‘A major book’
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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First Sentence
On February 15th, 1952, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the nation fell silent for two minutes in honour of the dead king. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
On February 15th, 1952, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the nation fell silent for two minutes in honour of the dead king. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
66 of 66 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Six year-old Mary stood quietly in the snow, with her family, as they mourned the death of King George VI, and thought "I am not Mary. That is a mistake. I am not a girl. I am a boy."
This is an enchanting story of people in a small village in the south of England trying to make sense of their lives.
It is not a book of tragedy. There is sadness, but there is joy. There is death but there is life. There is hopelessness but there is also the urge to become.
In its depiction of the complex network of relationships, there is probably more real truth about the way people are, than in a thousand psychology texts.
Walter with his dream of becoming a singer and songwriter believing that his dreams can never be fulfilled. Jimmy also nearly becoming trapped in a life not of his choosing. Both breaking out in their own special ways. Edward Harker, with his hat held discreetly in front of his trousers, believing that his feelings, at 61, for Irene are improper. And Irene never realising that a man could find her attractive as a woman.
Sonny, withdrawn inside himself occupied only with the farm that provided the family living. Estelle retreating into fantasy to escape a life of emptiness.
But, most of all, Mary who is really Martin, displaced in the family's cognisance by the arrival of the younger brother, despising him for his scrawny weakness, going through school to adulthood, meanwhile finding her true love and losing it, but growing triumphantly in her, then his, own individual way.
74 of 75 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this novel. I haven't read it recently so some of the details are fuzzy but I do remember being amazed by the story and the author's writing style.
"Sacred Country" is about a young girl, Mary Ward, who, at the age of six, realizes that she should be boy. The book is a chronicle of her life from that point on. I found the detailed descriptions of the odd things that captured Mary's curiosity as a child (and as an adult, in a different way) intriguing. I won't lie, this is a very sad story at times, and is hard to read in some parts because of Mary's loneliness. The loneliness is never stated and packs a harder punch because of it. All in all, this book explained to me in stunning writing, the process of finding all of the right worlds in oneself. And, dealing with them when they don't fit or express into a manageable form to the outside world. It is a coming of age story to the self and to life. I like to read to learn - about happiness, sadness, life - this book delivered in a big way for me.
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I had 'The Road Home' by this author at Christmas and found it a very evocative story, written through the eyes of a foreigner in England. Seeing the country I thought I knew so well through foreign eyes was quite a wake-up call! I wanted to read more by this author, and was gratified to find that in this book, too, Rose Tremain tells a story from another unexpected viewpoint (or set of viewpoints, since she divides the book into sections that allow more than one character to take their turn to tell their story in the first person). Mary Martin Ward, the book's main protagonist, is an acute observer of the places in which she lives (Suffolk, London, America) and of the people she meets. The author succeeds in presenting Mary's early life from a child's perspective - i.e. keen observation but often faulty interpretation. All is focused through Mary's essential belief that she should really be a boy, not a girl, and in this respect, she too walks through England as if she is a 'foreigner', because she doesn't fit comfortably into the female role and environment that she occupies, and thus often feels more of an onlooker than a participant.
Something similar could be said of Mary's mother, Estelle, whose lifelong struggle against depression isolates her too in a world that only transiently relates to what actually goes on around her. Mary's father Sonny handles his apartness in a different way - with belligerence and dogmatism, becoming over the years ever more inward-looking and taciturn. Her brother Timmy is another character who doesn't dovetail into school or life; he too seems to be on the outside looking in. In fact, all the characters in this book reflect the intrinsic solitariness that all humans experience at some point, but which perhaps we don't easily recognise in a crowded world. From Mary's Scottish primary school teacher who grew up in a windmill, via the butcher's son who was trapped in his inheritance, to the lovely but naive Pearl (Mary's "precious thing") we see this innate loneliness again and again, the faulty connections that people make with others even in the most intimate of relationships. And yet, it isn't a sad book (though it has some very sad moments). I found Mary's life journey not only very interesting but also quite inspiring; her spirit is indomitable.
There are also lots of side issues interwoven into the story that introduce the reader to all kinds of fascinating and diverse facts: farming, life in the 1950's, protest journalism, country music. And the writer's eye for detail is meticulous. I felt that the drama in the book had a more powerful impact on the reader because it was so understated. A gentle book that doesn't deal with gentle themes, but hopefully leaves its readers with more compassion towards the people they meet every day. There is more to everyone than meets the eye!
I heartily recommend this book to those who enjoy a thoughtful read.
Something similar could be said of Mary's mother, Estelle, whose lifelong struggle against depression isolates her too in a world that only transiently relates to what actually goes on around her. Mary's father Sonny handles his apartness in a different way - with belligerence and dogmatism, becoming over the years ever more inward-looking and taciturn. Her brother Timmy is another character who doesn't dovetail into school or life; he too seems to be on the outside looking in. In fact, all the characters in this book reflect the intrinsic solitariness that all humans experience at some point, but which perhaps we don't easily recognise in a crowded world. From Mary's Scottish primary school teacher who grew up in a windmill, via the butcher's son who was trapped in his inheritance, to the lovely but naive Pearl (Mary's "precious thing") we see this innate loneliness again and again, the faulty connections that people make with others even in the most intimate of relationships. And yet, it isn't a sad book (though it has some very sad moments). I found Mary's life journey not only very interesting but also quite inspiring; her spirit is indomitable.
There are also lots of side issues interwoven into the story that introduce the reader to all kinds of fascinating and diverse facts: farming, life in the 1950's, protest journalism, country music. And the writer's eye for detail is meticulous. I felt that the drama in the book had a more powerful impact on the reader because it was so understated. A gentle book that doesn't deal with gentle themes, but hopefully leaves its readers with more compassion towards the people they meet every day. There is more to everyone than meets the eye!
I heartily recommend this book to those who enjoy a thoughtful read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Sensitive and Thoughtful
A thought-provoking account of a transexual's struggle to change officially from girl (Mary) to boy (Martin). Read more
Published 6 months ago by Kate Hopkins
Wonderfully drawn characters on a journey of discovery
I came to this earlier book after 'The Road Home', 'the Colour' and 'Music and Silence' and found it even better then them. Read more
Published 15 months ago by G W
Two minute's silence
Rose Tremain is a very likeable writer, but I sometimes feel that her characters are pieces she is moving around on a chessboard. Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2009 by Eileen Shaw
Lives of quiet desperation
This is the third book by Rose Tremain that I have read, and she really is a very versatile writer, as regards both content and style. Read more
Published on 26 Jun 2009 by Ralph Blumenau
Poor Mary
I first came across Rose Tremain when my wife bought The Road Home which I picked up as I had nothing else to read at that time and could not put down. Read more
Published on 19 May 2009 by Alexander Bryce
Moving in the extreme
The first quarter of this wonderful book took some getting into. Mary/Martin's gender-identity struggle really absorbed me, but the numerous other stories were distracting. Read more
Published on 28 Nov 2008 by Phil
Pass over this book and it's your loss....
Buy this now! ;-)
I first read this book many years ago, soon after Rose had amazed me when she was on Desert Island Discs - she sounded so intelligent and interesting... Read more
I first read this book many years ago, soon after Rose had amazed me when she was on Desert Island Discs - she sounded so intelligent and interesting... Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2008 by Himself
A melange of characters crocheted to hook the reader.
This is a can't be put down book. At first the topic seems unpromising, an infant girls transexual realisation. Read more
Published on 6 Dec 2001
The most fantastic book ever published.
In the summer of 1996, when I was feeling particularly confused and lonely I picked up a copy of sacred country and read it. Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2000
Gripping, moving and different!!
Rose Tremain has created another masterpiece with this work. The central character of Mary/Martin explores a range of emotions and circumstances that are beyond the scope of... Read more
Published on 13 Jun 1999
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