The Witch Elm

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The Witch Elm
The Witch Elm.jpg
First edition
Author Tana French
Publisher Viking Press
Publication date
9 October 2018
Pages509

The Witch Elm (also published as The Wych Elm) is a 2018 novel by Tana French. The novel is a standalone, not related to her Dublin Murder Squad novels.

Contents

Writing and development

French was motivated to write the novel as an exploration of the connection between luck and an individual's ability to feel empathy for others. [1] French was also inspired by Bella in the Wych Elm, an unidentified woman found in a wych elm in Hagley in the 1940s. [1] French does not find true crime any more recent than the Bella case interesting, partially due to the ongoing impacts on living people caused by more recent crimes. [2] To accurately depict the protagonist's experience after a traumatic event, French conducted research about PTSD. [3]

French was also motivated to write the novel due to an interest in exploring a crime from a perspective other than that of a detective, the primary viewpoint used in her Dublin Murder Squad novels. [4]

Reception

The novel received mostly positive reviews from critics. [5] American author Stephen King, in a review written for The New York Times , praised the novel as "extraordinary". [6]

References

  1. 1 2 Shapiro, Lila (October 15, 2018). "Tana French on The Witch Elm, #MeToo, and the Divisive Ending of In the Woods". Vulture. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  2. ↑ Clark, Alex (February 16, 2019). "Tana French: 'Nobody with imagination should commit a crime. You wouldn't handle the stress'". The Guardian. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  3. ↑ Canfield, David (October 5, 2018). "Tana French on 'The Witch Elm' and why she loves writing mysteries". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  4. ↑ Schwartz, Alexandra (August 10, 2019). "How Tana French Inhabits the Minds of Her Detectives". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  5. ↑ "Book Marks reviews of The Witch Elm by Tana French". Book Marks. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  6. ↑ King, Stephen (October 10, 2018). "Stephen King Reviews Tana French's 'Extraordinary' New Novel". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2022.


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