This debut novel by R J Devlin tells the story of one woman’s journey from 70s village kid to eco-warrior, through road protest camps, travellers’ sites and squats.
‘People forget that the Earth’s not just about trees.
It’s about us.’
Holed up in a winter blizzard, Bridget doesn’t have much to think about. Picking up a weeks-old newspaper sets her to sorting through the clutter of the past in search of the answers to lifelong questions about her best friend Martha. Mostly, why does shy, mute, terrified Martha have to make her own life so hard? And will The Mouse ever overcome her fears?
When Bridget unearths the old exercise book with the snowflakes on the cover, she decides it’s time to keep her promise to write Martha’s story, and so doing begins a journey that uncovers her own long-buried past as well. From ‘70s village kid to eco-warrior, through road protest camps, travellers’ sites and squats, Martha’s restless search for home ends unexpectedly in a challenge that puts to the test her activist’s training and all her hard-won survival skills…
‘Like I say, I liked Mart, I really did. But so often I saw the way she’d freeze, white-faced, as if just waiting for some predator to pounce and finish her off…it was only a matter of time before some hawk thudded into the earth and snatched her away.’
So Bridget keeps trying to save Martha, and Martha keeps trying to save the Earth. But in the end, as every protestor finds out, the life you save has to be your own.