Caryl LewisThe Jeweller

Mari lives alone in a remote cottage by the sea with only her cat and a rather needy and temperamental pet monkey for company. The latter has the same love of trinkets as Mari. The ‘clutter’ that fills the cottage is the vintage clothing and jewellery gleaned from house clearances or bought at auction that Mari sells on her market stall, along with the letters and photographs she obsessively collects containing the stories of other people’s lives.From the beginning, I was struck by the author’s imaginative and descriptive writing about landscape and nature, skilfully preserved in Gwen Davies’ translation.‘The sea was breathing in the distance, dark against the growing light, and seagulls were being flung across the air like litter.’‘Catkins of pussy willow and hazel caught the light like earrings: grey-silver droplets and knuckles of pale gold that twisted on an updraught.’I particularly liked the way that inanimate objects become animate in Mari’s eyes. So a beech tree is described as ‘flirting its little fans of beaten neon-green at her’ or freshly laundered vintage clothes destined for her stall are ‘alive on the line as though their new owners were dancing in them right now‘. Mari even sees the jewels she collects and works with as having a life and personality of their own. At one point, she refers to some jewels as ‘giving her a hard time’.Unfolding over the course of a year, the reader witnesses Mari’s physical and mental struggles, especially when the future of the market where she has her stall is placed in jeopardy. As summer turns to stormy autumn, things grow darker, events from earlier in Mari’s life are revealed and the reader begins to understand the complex nature of her past relationships. There is closure of a sort but also a sense of history repeating itself.The Jeweller is a slim novel but beautifully written. It’s a book which packs a lot into a small space.

This is a beautifully written novel and the translation is superb. The language is so poetic, with spirituality and a connection with nature and the natural world woven exquisitely throughout the book.It's one of those novels which seems quietly compelling and then something takes you completely by surprise. There are so many fascinating characters from Mari, the jeweller of the title, to fellow market stall holders Mo and Gwyn, to young Dafydd, the son of a friend of Mari's who passed away in tragic circumstances. They each have their own stories to tell and answers they are seeking from life.There is a sense too that Mari is always searching for something throughout the story, an element of mystery. What is the treasure she hopes to uncover as she helps clear old houses? With its short chapters, this is a book which is deceptively simple to read but which has much to make sense of and understand. In the book, as in life, all is not neatly resolved and the reader has to make some of their own decisions as to what has come to pass. It is one of those books which I think I would take more from on each re-reading as my understanding deepened.With jewels playing an central role in the Mari's life, I cannot help but say that this is a little gem of a book.