Author: Evie Woods
The Story Collector is a beautiful book by Evie Woods, which inspired me to buy her other books and order a book on Irish tales and folklore due to the compelling story Evie Woods created in The Story Collector. I always wanted to visit Ireland, but never had a chance, however, Evie Woods writes in such a compelling way that one feels as if they are teleported to the country. I almost felt the rain (mind you, I love rain so that was not a put-off) and felt as if I could see green fields, feel the rain on my skin and interact with Irish fairies. Or, the Good People, as they are called.
In The Story Collector, we follow the story of two women: one is an Irish teenager living in Ireland, and one is an American of Irish origin who travels home to Boston after a marriage breakup in New York City but then ends up buying a ticket and going to Ireland, which happened because of an accidental newspaper article and a souvenir she purchased in the airport gift shop. She comes to Thornwood and ends up staying in a cottage where she walks late at night to fight off a panic attack, only to find a tin with a diary of Anna Butler, who lived in the same cottage exactly 100 years before. Throughout the book, we follow the story of Anna, who lived with her parents in the cottage and who ended up working as a local assistant to an American anthropologist researching fairytales and folklore. The anthropologist in the book is called Harold and his character is based on Walter Evans-Wentz who was indeed an anthropologist collecting local folklore and stories about fairies. The diary of Anna Butler is accompanied by an unused ticket for a transatlantic journey from Queenstown to New York with the Cunard Line shipping company, and the ticket is from 1911 whereas the book Harold later publishes was published in 1912. We know right from the start the ticket was unused but do not know until the end what happened. The diary of Anna Butler starts in 1910 when she worked for Harold and Sarah travels to Ireland in 2010.
Anna bikes with Harold every day and introduces him to local people who tell him stories, which are beautifully portrayed. Anna believes in fairies and that many humans become fairies after they die and has an experience of interacting with a fairy Millie, but does not disclose that to Harold immediately, or until Millie shows herself again and saves her. The diary is beautifully written and portrays Irish life of the time, the sense of community and supporting one another and local beliefs in fairies. Sarah’s story is written well but less compellingly and every time I read Sarah’s story, I could not wait for it to finish and go back to Anna’s story. I was wondering how Sarah’s story reads as a soppy love story whilst Anna’s reads so well and thought initially that writing was better on Anna’s story. But, as I read along, I realised that the author was writing two stories that happened at different times and portrayed a different life, so I got engaged with Sarah’s story more. It was as if I was reading two books written by two authors, which speaks volumes of the writing talent of Evie Woods.
Another compelling thing in The Story Collector is that the ending of the book is unexpected, which in Sarah’s story is explained as what happens in real life where you do not necessarily have an ending from stories you think you would have. I thought, yes, that is true and then ended up saying, hang on, but both stories are just stories, which then again made me realise how captivating this book was. I totally forgot both are stories because Anna’s diary felt so real.
I do not want to go into details too much because I do not want to spoil anything, but I absolutely loved this book. Here are some compelling quotes,
Even ordinary people have extraordinary stories to tell
There was something spiritual about trees that seemed to bring about an inner calm
If we lose our stories, we lose ourselves
Thank you for reading.