The Rain Heron
Books | Fiction / Literary
3.9
Robbie Arnott
"Astonishing...With the intensity of a perfect balance between the mythic and the real, The Rain Heron keeps turning and twisting, taking you to unexpected places. A deeply emotional and satisfying read. Beautifully written." --Jeff VanderMeer, author of Borne. One of LitHub's Most Anticipated Books of 2021. A gripping novel of myth, environment, adventure, and an unlikely friendship, from an award-winning Australian authorRen lives alone on the remote frontier of a country devastated by a coup d'état. High on the forested slopes, she survives by hunting, farming, trading, and forgetting the contours of what was once a normal life. But her quiet stability is disrupted when an army unit, led by a young female soldier, comes to the mountains on government orders in search of a legendary creature called the rain heron—a mythical, dangerous, form-shifting bird with the ability to change the weather. Ren insists that the bird is simply a story, yet the soldier will not be deterred, forcing them both into a gruelling quest.Spellbinding and immersive, Robbie Arnott’s The Rain Heron is an astounding, mythical exploration of human resilience, female friendship, and humankind’s precarious relationship to nature. As Ren and the soldier hunt for the heron, a bond between them forms, and the painful details of Ren’s former life emerge—a life punctuated by loss, trauma, and a second, equally magical and dangerous creature. Slowly, Ren's and the soldier’s lives entwine, unravel, and ultimately erupt in a masterfully crafted ending in which both women are forced to confront their biggest fears—and regrets.Robbie Arnott, one of Australia’s most acclaimed young novelists, sews magic into reality with a steady, confident hand. Bubbling with rare imagination and ambition, The Rain Heron is an emotionally charged and dazzling novel, one that asks timely yet eternal questions about environment, friendship, nationality, and the myths that bind us.
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Author
Robbie Arnott
Pages
288
Publisher
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published Date
2021-02-09
ISBN
0374722897 9780374722890
Community ReviewsSee all
"“These days, when I close my eye, I see the women on the mountain. I see the fever in her skin. I see her broken in my arms. I see my bullet in her throat.”<br/><br/>The Rain Heron feels like a story that is trying to have the feeling of folklore fantasy, like a story that would be passed thru generations on how someone’s actions can impact their environment and influence events in the future. Unfortunately I think Robbie Arnott’s story completely misses the mark in that regard and comes across as a boring retelling of the invader helping the natives story that has been told for decades across multiple mediums <br/><br/>One do the first things that becomes apparent when reading this book is the formatting that Arnott choose to go with, especially with how he decides to organize the dialogue and conversations between characters. They do not have quotations and are broken across lines, other times characters will just monologue across multiple pages. For me this made it extremely hard to follow, to the point that I was more focused on following who was talking instead of understanding what they were talking about. <br/><br/>Which makes me sad because the strongest part of this book is the descriptions and vivid language that is used. This story has some of the most detail I have seen in a novel this year. Describing how Harker’s infection spreads thru her body, to describing the world around them, Arnott does a great job of trying to make you be there through the page. <br/><br/>Part II is the strongest section of “The Rain Heron” by a mile. Every other part is pale in comparison. I wish we would dive more into what happened to this world. Why was there a coup? Who led the coup? Is the war still happening? If those questions were raised or answered, then I completely missed them. <br/><br/>There is strong potential here, but except for Part II, nothing real lives up to it. There will be people who connect with “The Rain Heron” more than me, but besides enjoying the flowery language that was used, I will never think about this book again."
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Cody Crumley