Customer Reviews
Pass over this book and it's your loss.... - By: Himself, 11 Nov 2008 
Buy this now! ;-)
I first read this book many years ago, soon after Rose had amazed me when she was on Desert Island Discs - she sounded so intelligent & interesting that I had to see what her books were like. I was stunned by it (and by the fact that's she's still comparatively little known) & lent my copy to several people, butin the end it didn't come back. So,in July I ordered a new copy & read it again - it was even better than I'd remembered - the plot, structure, exquisite use of the language & humour (as well as many other emotions) combine to make it one of my two favourite books. In case you're wondering the other is Last & First Men/Last Menin London by Olaf Stapledon - but that's out of print more often than not.
A great novel. - By: Reader, 19 Aug 2005 I loved this novel. I haven't read it recently so some of the details are fuzzy but I do remember being amazed by the story & the author's writing style.
"Sacred Country" is about a young girl, Mary Ward, who, at the age of six, realizes that she should be boy. The book is a chronicle of her life from that point on. I found the detailed descriptions of the odd things that captured Mary's curiosity as a child (and as an adult,in a different way) intriguing. I won't lie, this is a very sad story at times, & is hard to readin some parts because of Mary's loneliness. The loneliness is never stated & packs a harder punch because of it. Allin all, this book explained to mein stunning writing, the process of finding all of the right worldsin oneself. And, dealing with them when they don't fit or express into a manageable form to the outside world. It is a coming of age story to the self & to life. I like to read to learn - about happiness, sadness, life - this book deliveredin a big way for me.
A melange of characters crocheted to hook the reader. - By: , 06 Dec 2001 This is a can't be put down book. At first the topic seems unpromising, an infant girls transexual realisation. However this frame is used as a trellis to support a honeysuckle plot of intertwining tendrils. Not a word is wasted, not a word ommitedin demonstrating not ony the wordsmith at work but also the artist. The book is funny, sad, tender & quite vicious allin one.
The most fantastic book ever published. - By: , 17 Oct 2000 In the summer of 1996, when I was feeling particularly confused & lonely I picked up a copy of sacred country & read it. Wow is the only word I can think of to summarise how I felt about the book. It gave me insightin to the struggles of others; the dilemas faced by Mary, Timmy, Estelle, Cord, Sonny Walter & the many other charactersin the book opened my eyes to the world around me & made me alert to the emotions & insecurities of others. I have read the book 32 times since then & each time I find something else to break my heart or I notice something newin the story I never did before. The last time I read it I cried when Mary/Martin sat at the fountainin London wondering which parts of Mary she would miss when she finally became Martin. The way Rose Tremain creates a world into wich you can steo & find something new time & time again is fascinating. Whether it is Pearl's beauty, mary's struggle or Estelles madness that grips you the first time you read Sacred Country, you will find that it is something else entirely trhat grips you the second time. Fantasic, Tremain's most powerful work yet.
A celebration of human weakness and triumph - By: , 12 Sep 1999 Six year-old Mary stood quietlyin the snow, with her family, as they mourned the death of King George VI, & thought "I am not Mary. That is a mistake. I am not a girl. I am a boy."
This is an enchanting story of peoplein a small villagein the south of England trying to make sense of their lives.
It is not a book of tragedy. There is sadness, but there is joy. There is death but there is life. There is hopelessness but there is also the urge to become.
In its depiction of the complex network of relationships, there is probably more real truth about the way people are, thanin a thousand psychology texts.
Walter with his dream of becoming a singer & songwriter believing that his dreams can never be fulfilled. Jimmy also nearly becoming trappedin a life not of his choosing. Both breaking outin their own special ways. Edward Harker, with his hat held discreetlyin front of his trousers, believing that his feelings, at 61, for Irene are improper. And Irene never realising that a man could find her attractive as a woman.
Sonny, withdrawn inside himself occupied only with the farm that provided the family living. Estelle retreating into fantasy to escape a life of emptiness.
But, most of all, Mary who is really Martin, displacedin the family's cognisance by the arrival of the younger brother, despising him for his scrawny weakness, going through school to adulthood, meanwhile finding her true love & losing it, but growing triumphantlyin her, then his, own individual way.
