Ten top books of rural Wales

Cynan Jones's novels include The Long Dry, Everything I Found on the Beach, Bird, Blood, Snow, and The Dig.

One of his top ten books of rural Wales, as shared at the Guardian:

Martha, Jack and Shanco by Caryl Lewis

One of the best portrayals of indigenous folk can be found in Caryl Lewis’s story of two brothers and a sister bound to the farm they’ve inherited by love, fear and secrets. The writing comes alive in its small details and descriptions. The English translation can’t always catch Lewis’s ear for Welsh, but few books deliver a more authentic picture of rural Wales. Bakelite switches, low doorframes, water sloshing through uneven slabs. You can scribble these details in a notebook on a visit, but you can only write them truly if you’ve grown up with them, as Lewis did.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue