Nia

Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description

Mewn twyni tywod dirgel a hynafol, ymosodir ar ferch yn ei harddegau. Rai blynyddoedd yn ddiweddarach mae Nia yn dychwelyd i'w thref enedigol, ac i'r twyni, er mwyn dod i delerau â'i phrofiad ac er mwyn symud ymlaen. Stori delynegol, atgofus a grymus yn portreadu ymchwil am ddatrysiad lle dinoethir bywyd tref fechan a lle mae tirwedd hynafol yn cuddio cyfrinachau.

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

In ancient and mysterious sand dunes a teenager is attacked. Some years later Nia returns to her home town, and the dunes, to come to terms with her experience and find a new way to live her life. Lyrical and evocative, Nia is a compelling story of a search for resolution where small town life is laid bare and an ancient landscape holds answers.

Dosbarthu

Byddwn yn dosbarthu eitemau sydd mewn stoc o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith, fel arfer drwy Royal Mail Tracked 48. Ar gyfer archebion o flaen llaw, byddwn yn dosbarthu’r eitem o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith ar ôl ei derbyn gan ein cyflenwr.

Dispatch

In-stock items will be dispatched within 3 business days, usually by Royal Mail Tracked 48. For pre-orders, we’ll dispatch within 3 business days of receiving the item from our supplier.

Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography

Robert Minhinnick is one of Wales’ (some would say Britain’s) most eminent writers. He is a multi-prizewinning poet, essayist and novelist; his latest poetry collection, Diary of the Last Man, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize in 2017 and won Wales Book of the Year. Minhinnick is also an environmentalist and founded Friends of the Earth Cymru and Sustainable Wales. He edited Poetry Wales for ten years and currently encourages writers through the Green Room salon in Porthcawl. Seren has published three collections of his poetry, four collections of essays and his two novels, the first of which, Sea Holly, was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize.

Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

If Robert Minhinnick’s dazzling literary resumé wasn’t enough to tempt us into delving into his latest novel, its stunningly illustrated cover seals the deal. Nia is the third instalment in a trilogy of novels set in a fictional seaside town inspired by Minhinnick’s own hometown, Porthcawl. The protagonists belong to the same family line, the Vines, and their lives are shaped by their surroundings: the town, the funfair, the dunes and the ocean. Nia is the daughter of John Vine (the previous protagonist of Sea Holly ), and in this latest work she navigates her recent entry into motherhood, her relationship with herself, with her past, her home, her adult friendships and with a reality which mingles mysteriously with dreams and imagination. Set deep into a summer drought – the longest known for thirty years, they say – Nia is a novel wrapped in weather and landscape. Nia herself is preoccupied by an expedition into a so-far unexplored cave system, as well as to the dunes above it. We feel the tug of these landscapes on every page, and perhaps the most memorable scenes are those held in the darkness, in the days the three friends spend venturing underground. Our characters are all unreliable, offering up streams of memory which may or may not be accurate. There is a strong theme of storytelling in this book, often done around the campfire, sometimes staying within Nia’s internal dialogue: patches of history given to the reader to sew together ourselves. Throughout, we can sense that there are stories which aren’t being shared, with Minhinnick placing much of his meaning in the silences of his characters. Some memories are fleeting or fragmented, while others are sharp and vivid. A recollection of Nia’s mother, for instance, and her lavender: ‘Blue as dusk, Sian’s lavender. Or the cobalt of a June midnight. She always said the last thing she saw when leaving that garden late was lavender. Its smoke smearing the air. Bats darting, the cricket drone and the lingering of lavender on her fingers and thumb. Lavender the colour of lovehearts.’ It’s at moments like this that we are reading a poet’s work: images carefully selected, and arranged with instinct. And for Minhinnick, these evoked places and experiences can range impressively from Saskatchewan to Amsterdam. Encompassing the hazy return of friends and memories, Nia ’s narrative drifts, and though there are times when this drift can feel aimless, as though it is skimming a surface, it is also far from passive. Minhinnick asks his reader to pay attention, to enter into the fragmented poetry of it all and sense what is inevitably bubbling away beneath the surface – and we do. Without the need for over-obvious hints and nudges, Nia’s dark past is mysterious but present, and when it finally breaks through, it is as though we are finding a buried memory of our own. Nia may not be the perfect novel if you crave thrill, or even satisfaction, but its poetry is quite enthralling, and it contains a cavernous network of imagery and atmosphere that is difficult to forget.