Each Leaf, Each Curve of Stem
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Each Leaf, Each Curve of Stem
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Narrated by:
‘Every sentence sings off the page’ Jan Carson
The year is 1875, and John Ruskin is losing his mind.
The celebrated art critic, the revered Professor of Art, the author of countless books, the campaigner for social reform, the man who taught a generation to see, finds himself stumbling blindly in the wake of a terrible grief: the madness and death of a young woman he once loved.
Following Ruskin from candlelit séances in country houses to the dazzling palazzos of Venice to the rainswept hills of the Lake District, Victoria MacKenzie captures the exquisite anguish of a man who was astonishingly vibrant and alive in his work, and yet whose attempts at intimacy were hopelessly thwarted. Beautiful, haunting and heartbreaking, Each Leaf, Each Curve of Stem is an unforgettable portrait of longing, madness, grief – and the redemptions of art and the natural world.
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Praise for For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain:
‘A beautiful book ... It warmed my heart’ MAX PORTER
‘Electrifying ... A pocket epic’ GUARDIAN
‘The best first novel I’ve read in years’ RODDY DOYLE
‘It illuminates like a shaft of sunlight’ IMOGEN HERMES GOWAR
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Critic reviews
Victoria Mackenzie has an almost painterly approach to storytelling. Each character is carefully and vividly rendered. Each sentence sings off the page. This is a tender and deeply humane portrait of Ruskin, revealing as much of his flawed humanity as his much celebrated genius. This is historical fiction at its most empathetic and intimate (JAN CARSON)
Praise for For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain: Miraculously conjured ... Brilliantly done
A beautiful book ... It warmed my heart (MAX PORTER)
Electrifying ... A pocket epic
The best first novel I've read in years ... So full and so vivid; it is amazing (RODDY DOYLE)
A vibrant portrait of female courage
A novel of rare brightness and clarity, concise and yet capacious: it illuminates like a shaft of sunlight (IMOGEN HERMES GOWAR)
MacKenzie evokes an almost unimaginably distant worldview with sympathy and sincerity
A startling read ... Magic (JO BROWNING WROE)
Moving and unexpected, Mackenzie writes with great clarity and tenderness ... I tore through this (JULIA ARMFIELD)
Magnificent, bold and compelling (ROSIE ANDREWS)
Absolutely cracking. I couldn’t put it down, it’s so simply but powerfully written. One of my favourite reads of 2023 (JAN CARSON)
Mind-expanding stuff
Stunningly original ... Not only shines a light on the lives and experiences of two ‘ordinary’ women, but draws clear contemporary echoes and parallels – around mental health, grief, motherhood and more – that resonate long after reading
Honest, insightful, erudite and wise (ANNIE GARTHWAITE)
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