Helm is everything I have hoped for recently in a book—meditative, historical, taking the long view of humanity, and yet ultimately focused on the impact we are having on our planet today, and mourning the future we’ve created for earth and all its inhabitants. It is slow and reflective, which may not be a selling point for you, but which I find to be a tasteful antidote to the too-fast fear factory of a world we live in that is often too much for me to meaningfully process. This book left me feeling more grounded and in touch with my own reality. Sure, I’m a bit sad, but I also feel alive and in touch with something bigger than myself.

Taking place over hundreds of years, Helm is the story of a strong wind (called the Helm wind—it’s a real thing) in northern England, told through the eyes of many different human characters including a neolithic/pagan human group, a crusader, an early meteorologist, a present day climate researcher, and others. All the characters felt real and personal, and were written with intimacy and sensitivity. The effect of this wide-reaching storytelling is to have my own life at once dwarfed by the scale of history (comforting), as well as dramatically placed in the midst of a burgeoning extinction of what was believed to be permanent (sad, humbling).

To me, this is the best case scenario for what I want from a novel today. I felt entertained and transported outside of myself, but also feel more deeply connected to reality and the current events of our lives in this new era of major global shift. I highly recommend!!