Once Upon a River: A Novel

Such an amazing book! It was so well written and perfect for cozying up next to a fireplace

Beautiful and mesmerizing. The narrator did a splendid delivery. I enjoyed this novel and will read it again.

A beautifully written story about seemingly-drowned girl whose recovery has a profound effect on ma y people. When it’s good, this story is completely absorbing. But it’s about 100 pages too long. Nevertheless, this is well worth a read by those who like character-driven novels with plenty of atmosphere.

*I received an advanced copy from BookishFirst. This does not affect my review.*

I had been meaning to read The Thirteenth Tale for a while now, but it wasn't until I saw this book first mentioned that I finally decided to try this author's work. Why ever did I wait?! Diane Setterfield is a master of this style, and while I normally read fast-paced YA stories, this one satisfied a craving I didn't realize I even had! The blurb drew me in, and though it's not a genre I read often, I can easily see myself coming back to this author! I loved the enchanting setting and the storytelling is superb! This is one of those that shouldn't be rushed, and one that should be read on those days where you have nothing better to do than to curl up with a good book and a steaming mug to enjoy.

4.5 stars. It reads like a Dickens novel, if Dickens had been a woman. Great tale-telling.

A long, slow revelation of the various secrets being kept by the inhabitants of one stretch of the Thames in the 19th century and an exploration of how all those secrets and their keepers' lives intersect and branch out from the events of one evening on the river. This novel is masterfully and beautifully told (and there are a few just brilliant, hilarious bits too) and is almost as much about storytelling as it is about telling *this* story. Not quite an all-time favorite for me because the nature of it holds the reader just a touch too far away from the characters for my taste, but boy does it sure reward sticking with it.

Wonderful story with a fairy tale quality. I loved all the good characters and disliked the evil ones. My favorite character was little Jonathan, he touched my heart so much. I wish he had featured more and I think this author should write of future adventures for him. The book was also wonderfully narrated. This book will leave you with a truly happily ever after in your heart.

This is a great story and a fantastic narrator! I highly recommend this book!

An evocative story read extremely well by Juliet Stevenson. A pleasure on both counts.

Wonderful book! Masterpiece of storytelling. There are elements of magic and lots of derp human emotion that readers can connect with. It’s a book about love, betrayal, evil and justice.

Diane Setterfield is a masterful story teller. If you're looking for quick fix fiction, this book in not for you. It flows slowly and magically along drawing the reader into the lives of characters that are crafted with details that fill them with life. Full of mystery and compassion, this is book is worth reading.

Diane Setterfield is a remarkable storyteller. A beautiful, intertwining tale.

Diane Setterfield has done it again! A wonderful story different from, but filled with wonderful characters as she wrote "The Thirteenth Tale"! I WILL be reading this again. Juliet Stevenson is a wonderful narrator.

One of my favorite books! Beautifully crafted and written with memorable characters and perfectly descriptive language. An exquisite novel.

Perfect pair, the narrator and this story. JS does such a wonderful job telling us of the lives of these people. I find her deep smooth voice so relaxing and can listen for hours at a time! This is the second listen for me & I found things I missed the first time ‘round so it was still as wonderful.

I loved this book. Diane Setterfield’s beautiful prose was entrancing, her approach to storytelling gripping, and her character development rich. For a story with so many characters and important plot threads, I was amazed by how well she made me care for each character and storyline. Juliet Stevenson was an amazing narrator, too. I was so drawn in by this story and can’t wait to read more of Setterfield’s books.

So enjoyed and highly recommend.
Rivers are magical. Narration was excellent.

This is one of the best audiobooks i have ever listened to!! Even better than the author's first book. Will read again one day!

This is a book about a child. This is a book about storytellers and the stories they conjure.This is a book about wonder. This is a book about family and love. This is a book about a child and wonder and family and love. Could there be anything more interesting than a book of wonder?! This is such a moving, quietly spectacular book.

Wow. From the very first sentence to the very last, this was a great book. Not only was the story intriguing and the characters developed, but the writing itself was magical. I found my eyes absorbing the words rather than reading them and that meant I found myself right in the middle of all the action each time I sat down to read.

Terrific! Diane Setterfield can really tell a tale - like a river winding along - Loved Thirteenth Tale and this is just as good. Kept me interested until the last page!!

In the late 1800s, a mystery man pulls a mystery child from the Thames, and the hunt is on to claim her. Daughter of parents who thought themselves bereaved? Child of a passing stranger? Or just a girl washed overboard from a boat?The intersecting lives of rich and poor living in, on or around the river, form a rich backdrop to this tale of a child whose lack of voice parallels her initial “lack of life.” But surely there are ways the dead can be restored without miracles. And perhaps the nurse will learn. And perhaps…Blending local legend (and drinking tales) with local lives (and their incumbent trials), local scenery and haunting mystery, together with dawning science in an age of dying miracles, the story draws readers deep into wounded lives and keep us reading with the promise of future resolution. It’s a dark tale, beautifully enigmatic and pleasingly lit by kindness, and a thoroughly enjoyable, darkly evocative read.Disclosure: My husband bought it for me on a trip to England.

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield really enchanted me and I don't think I have ever said that about a book before. I would classify it as a fairy tale, well told and beautifully narrated in its audible version. It takes place in a hamlet near the Thames in a family-owned pub where people gather to tell stories both factual and mystical. One night at winter solstice, strange things happen in the pub which captivate all the lives and imaginations of the the town folk.

I absolutely love this book and narration is pure perfection.

Refreshingly different!!! Loved the intertwining tale of mystery and discovery.

Diane Setterfield's ONCE UPON A RIVER is four mysteries with the Thames River as the backdrop. The foremost mystery is that of a nearly drowned (not really "returned to life," as explained in Setterfield's "Note") four-year-old girl. No one knows who she is, and she doesn't speak. The other three mysteries are of girls who have gone missing, feared drowned in the Thames. Could the unknown, nearly drowned girl be one of the three missing girls?This book is told in the writing style of a fairy tale, which turned me off for the first 60 or so pages. I almost didn't continue reading until I read in Setterfield's "Note" that one of the characters is based on an actual photographer of the Thames at the time of this story. After I read a few more pages, I got used to this writing style and found I enjoyed the mysteries.But I admit ONCE UPON A RIVER does sound as corny as a fairy tale sometimes, and I even expected "and they all lived happily ever after" at the end. Sure enough, the last chapter is called "Happily Ever After."I won this book from Atria Books.

Although the author might believe this piece of work to be clever & mysterious; I found it to be overly long, winding, & boring with unremarkable, unlikable, dull characters, many with non-redeeming qualities.A half-drowned man, with his face bashed in and a seemingly dead little girl are brought back to life in a sleepy pub known for its storytelling.... The local healer is brought in and the little girls miraculously comes back to life.Then the story revisits the past & the lives of several local people, with many a chapter ending with: "Something is going to happen"Authors who write in a intentional "clever" but vague manner annoy the hell out of me.... This book qualifies.

How Dreamy is this Fantasy, Once Upon a River? Diane Setterfield is a brilliant writer. The intertwining of story, the life experiences that cross over into other realms. The confusion that one little baby can create. Is so well told that you just can't put this book down.

If you love fantasy like Inkheart; Lord of the Rings; The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe I can see you falling in love with this book.

If you feel the start to be rather unclear please push on. Author Diane Setterfield's stories are well worth the added effort.

I fell in love with Diane Setterfield’s first book, I was disappointed by her second; but when I saw the title of this third novel I thought that everything would be alright and as soon as I started to read I was quite certain that it would.Imagine curling up in a big armchair by a blazing fire on a wild and stormy night and listening to an story-teller who will have you hanging on every world and completely wrapped up in the story from beginning to end.Reading this book was rather like that.Back in the latter years of the 19th century there were many inns along the banks of the Thames and each one was renowned for something different, from music to gambling, from brawling to storytelling …It was the Swan Inn at Radcot that was known for its storytelling. It had been run for generations by the Ockwell family and it was a place where grand stories, with a good sprinkling of folklore and magic, were told, talked over, and re-told.40130093The grandest of all of the stories that would ever be told at the Swan Inn began on the night of the winter solstice. A badly injured stranger came through the door, carrying what all of those present believed to a large, bedraggled puppet.They were wrong.The man was carrying a lifeless young girl.Rita Sunday, the local nurse and widwife, was called and she quickly established that the girl had no pulse and was not breathing and that there was nothing she could go for her. She was laid out in a cold outer room while Rita treated the man’s injuries. Later she went back to the girl, because she couldn’t understand how she had died, and she was astonished to small signs of life. The girl would live. Rita’s scientific interest is piqued, because she cannot comprehend how anyone who is so clearly dead can recover and live.Nobody knows who the child is or where she came from, and she is unable to speak or tell to tell anyone anything about herself or her history.She might be the child of a wealthy couple who had been kidnapped years earlier.She might be the granddaughter of a gentleman farmer who knew that his estranged son had abandoned his wife and child.She might be the sister of a poor young woman who had never given up hope that she would come back one day.These are just some of the different characters whose stories – past and present – are wrapped around the story of the unknown child. The stories are rich and vividly told, the characters live and breathe, and it is so easy to be drawn in and to care deeply about what happens.There are good and hard-working people who do their best to help their friends and neighbours; there are people whose hearts have broken but who know that they can do nothing but carry on; but there are also scoundrels and evil-doers who will take advantage of any situation for their own ends.All life is here.Rita and the man whose life she saved – a photographer named Henry Daunt – become close and they set out to solve the mystery at the heart of the story.It is a story rich with the best kind of magic – magic rooted in nature and humanityStories are told of Quietly, one of a long line of a family of mute ferrymen, who travels between the worlds of the living and the dead. He will rescue river travellers in distress and will either deliver them safely to one side of the bank if it is not their time to pass, or to another destination if it is ….The river is always there, flowing through the story and its lovely prose.The story moves slowly and it rewards slow reading. The writing is gorgeous, there are so much many stories within the story to read and appreciate, and it is lovely spending time with all of the people who are part of those stories.Every detail was right, every note rang true, and the world of this book felt utterly, utterly real.Everything comes together beautifully and without a hint of contrivance.It was a wrench to leave, and I can’t quite believe that I couldn’t go to the Swan Inn and listen to the descendants of the people I have been reading about telling tales of them, telling the tales of this book, telling tales of their own ….I was spellbound from the first page to the last.