2023 Nero Book Award for Fiction (nominee)
Included in The Times' list of 'Best historical fiction books of 2023'
Isolated from society, Emily Brontë and her siblings spend their days inventing elaborate fictional realms or roaming the wild moors above their family home in Yorkshire. When the time comes for them to venture out into the world to earn a living, each of them struggles to adapt, but for Emily the change is catastrophic. Torn from the landscape to which she has become so passionately bound, she is simply unable to function.
To the outside world, Emily Brontë appears taciturn and unexceptional, but beneath the surface her mind is in a creative ferment. A violent phenomenon is about to burst forth that will fuse her imaginary world with the landscape of her beloved Yorkshire and change the literary world forever.
Fifteen Wild Decembers is the dazzling second novel from a writer who has been compared to Shirley Hazzard and Graham Greene, and whose first novel was described as 'utterly stunning', 'mesmerizing' and hailed as 'a masterpiece.'
Genre: Historical
Isolated from society, Emily Brontë and her siblings spend their days inventing elaborate fictional realms or roaming the wild moors above their family home in Yorkshire. When the time comes for them to venture out into the world to earn a living, each of them struggles to adapt, but for Emily the change is catastrophic. Torn from the landscape to which she has become so passionately bound, she is simply unable to function.
To the outside world, Emily Brontë appears taciturn and unexceptional, but beneath the surface her mind is in a creative ferment. A violent phenomenon is about to burst forth that will fuse her imaginary world with the landscape of her beloved Yorkshire and change the literary world forever.
Fifteen Wild Decembers is the dazzling second novel from a writer who has been compared to Shirley Hazzard and Graham Greene, and whose first novel was described as 'utterly stunning', 'mesmerizing' and hailed as 'a masterpiece.'
Genre: Historical
Praise for this book
"Powell is a talent to watch." - Lisa Appignanesi
"Interweaving meticulous research and exacting imagination, Powell has brought Emily Bronte's thoughts and quirks, attitudes and gestures, sibling affection and rivalry alive on the page. The novel captures not only the fascinating peculiarity of the Bronte's, but also the wild atmospheric weather in Yorkshire that puts a spell on everything." - Kit Fan
"I was spellbound by this fictionalised portrait, brimming with the texture of the dank, wild hills of Yorkshire, the weight and power of grief, and the contentment to be found in daring to forge one's own path in the world. Delightful and intriguing; each sentence is so sharp, so shining." - Elizabeth Macneal
"This vivid, intimate imagining of the lives of the Bronte sisters transports us to the haunted, wild, exuberant heart of history's most extraordinary literary family." - Meg Rosoff
"A haunting work. Karen Powell is a fantastic writer, particularly in her depictions of the natural world where she echoes and expands on Emily's own genius." - Bridget Walsh
"Interweaving meticulous research and exacting imagination, Powell has brought Emily Bronte's thoughts and quirks, attitudes and gestures, sibling affection and rivalry alive on the page. The novel captures not only the fascinating peculiarity of the Bronte's, but also the wild atmospheric weather in Yorkshire that puts a spell on everything." - Kit Fan
"I was spellbound by this fictionalised portrait, brimming with the texture of the dank, wild hills of Yorkshire, the weight and power of grief, and the contentment to be found in daring to forge one's own path in the world. Delightful and intriguing; each sentence is so sharp, so shining." - Elizabeth Macneal
"This vivid, intimate imagining of the lives of the Bronte sisters transports us to the haunted, wild, exuberant heart of history's most extraordinary literary family." - Meg Rosoff
"A haunting work. Karen Powell is a fantastic writer, particularly in her depictions of the natural world where she echoes and expands on Emily's own genius." - Bridget Walsh
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