Shared reading: Retreating into nature

At The Edge of the Woods by Kathryn Bromwich

Sometimes there is safety in withdrawing from the world - taking time to heal and recharge, seeking solace in nature or solitude, and breaking free from the events or people that caused you hurt. But there is something threatening to wider society in women who stand outside the mainstream – women who are not contained within a couple or a family, and who live on their terms in their own way. We all know which fairytale path that leads down - the community that turns on the strange and isolated woman who must, of course, be a witch.

At the Edge of the Woods by Kathryn Bromwich tells the story of a woman who winds her way deep into the Italian Alps, where she rents an isolated cabin. At first, Laura seems to be someone just seeking time alone - she mostly spends her days exploring the forest and climbing the mountains, or reading books and writing in notebooks whilst curled up in the sanctuary of her cabin. It is a simple, streamlined existence and feels like it has the makings of a beautiful retreat. But, as we entwine ourselves in her story, it becomes clearer that Laura is hiding from something or someone - with this eventually being revealed as an abusive and controlling ex-husband, who berated Laura for her inability to have his child.

“Distance, and stillness, allow me to observe the events of the past years with greater clarity: although the pain still feels fresh, I am able to understand it better. I write pages and pages about what I have lost, about the life I will never have. One night I put the pages in the fire, watching each one turn to ashes, as though that could extinguish the memories within.”

Laura occasionally leaves the safety of her woodland cabin to travel into the nearest village to get supplies or to earn money tutoring local children, but there is an uneasiness between the villagers and her. The novel is set during an unspecified era of the early 20th century when it wasn’t acceptable for women to do these sorts of things - and, as Laura becomes more feral and less part of the civilised world, spending more and more time alone, a tension breaks out between the locals and this strange woman in the woods.

“Beyond a certain point, when sympathy has fallen away, pain becomes distasteful to others, as if by venturing too close they might be caught in a vortex they will not be able to escape. It is catching ... it saps your humanity, little by little, until they no longer recognize you as one of their own. Day after day you become more transparent, until your materiality has trickled away and left behind a hazy and insubstantial outline, as though you were made of glass. But you do not stop feeling - that is the cruel trick - you are still there, as full of life and emotion as you ever were, waiting for them to see you.”

As Laura's isolation reaches a feverish pitch, there are times when it is hard to know if the events are real or if we’re witnessing the hallucinations of an increasingly wild woman - such as the peacock that struts around the cabin or the protective she-wolf who Laura builds a relationship with, but also the more disturbing human-like figures and noises in the shadows. There is a sense of a mystical aura that Laura has tapped into within the natural world and, in turn, nature seems to have absorbed Laura. This all adds to a feeling that maybe there is some grain of truth in the rumours that Laura is a witch and the novel moves towards an inevitability that eventually the locals will feel compelled to take things into their own hands.

The trajectory of this beautiful novel though is still one of hope - with its focus on the healing and redemptive power of nature, and its celebration of transgressive womanhood that flourishes outside of and transcends normative social boundaries.

I'd love to know your thoughts on the novel, and especially about the non-mother character of Laura, if you'd like to share them. Some reflections you might like to consider:

• We learn that Laura has retreated into the woods in order to escape her abusive husband . Are we bearing witness to the strength in her – the courage that it took to escape her marriage and survive on her own? Or could it be interpreted that she is merely someone hiding from the world and ostracised by the local commuunity – reinforcing an idea of childless women as outcasts with no place within ‘normal’ society?

• Childless women are often shown as standing ‘outside’ of nature, as if we have not fulfilled our natural role as mothers or our bodies have failed to work as nature intended, so it is interesting how much Kathryn Bromwich envelops the character of Laura within the natural world. How does this portrayal of the relationship between a childless character and nature make you feel – is it a celebratory depiction, showing that nature can be a protective and powerful force for us, or was there something unsettling in Laura’s descent into a feral, wild state?

• The label of ‘witch’ has often been used against childless women – and it has a long and unfortunate legacy that has rarely been used to show us in a positive light. So how do you feel about the local community’s accusation that Laura is a witch – is it only serving to reinforce the idea that transgressive women are ultimately something to be feared or even punished by society? Laura has clearly thrown off the shackles of conventional womanhood and is existing on her own terms though, forging an almost supernatural relationship with her surrounding environment – so is the novel reclaiming the figure of the mystical witch in a positive way that we can embrace?