Author’s name: Lynne Pearl

Title of book and/or series: Thiel: One Foot in Front of the Other (this is Book 1 in the Thiel series)

On the death of Narn, Thiel's beloved grandmother, Thiel leaves his rural home with his sole companion, a dog, to find his secret inheritance. Unable to read, mostly inarticulate and considered of little use by his fellow men, he carries Narn's letter to a lawyer in the impoverished and corrupt city of Goneton. Given a key to Narn's original home, he travels miles from his birthplace, meeting new companions along the way, including a wild pony and an abandoned child.

In a world similar to our own, Lynne Pearl vividly describes a time of crisis in an imagined past where rural idyll is clashing with the march of industrial modernity. In this gentle coming-of-age tale, an unlikely hero embarks on a journey of self discovery.

Westering is a world similar to our own but with some significant differences: the rituals, the marked distinction between rural and city life, the use of animals alongside the use of developed technologies.  There are also poorly understood fertility problems with rural populations struggling to replenish their numbers. These difficulties producing offspring exacerbate some of the existing negative practices and attitudes towards disability and health.

I would suggest the coast and the moorlands' standing stones, despite local superstitions about the stones and these empty places.

The overcrowding and the lack of care and nutrition in the cities.

Food in rural Westering is humble and rustic: slow-cooked stews of meat and vegetables; butter and cheese made by a neighbouring farmer; porridges made with local grain; homemade loaves of bread. However, the impoverished areas in the cities eat poorly while the elite eat richly.

There is weaponry but not much is made of it. It would be rather ordinary such as swords and the use of horses in skirmishes.

Foot, horse, pony, donkey, cart, or ship.

There are the same plants as on Earth but the animals are more attuned to the moods and feelings of the humans. The human races are the same but with the difference that they can have special latent abilities.

No magic, little supernatural influence.

Technology in Westering is modest, for example  preserving fruits and produce, making pottery and smithing metalwork of great delicacy and intricacy. In Book 2 we find that the elites of the city of Goneton would like to use the smiths' metalwork to make a machine, but its use is not revealed to the reader.

Not described in great detail, although the people enjoy telling stories and singing folk songs.

The days and weeks are not the same as on Earth but they are not delineated as part of the storyline. They are an implicit and unstated backdrop.

There is a rural folk religion that makes great use of song as well as imagery, flowers and animals. For example, the ceremony of Narn's Passing involves a singing procession of villagers following behind Thiel's family. They travel together from their homes to the village Song Hall and there they offer what flowers they could find in remembrance of Thiel's grandmother.

The political structure varies from area to area.  In the city there is a committee and there is some kind of implicit political process but it is not integral to the story line in the first Thiel book.

Participation in group song occurs at many occasions, both happy and sad, and also as part of more mundane camaraderie.

The landscapes of Westering are inspired by Southwest England, especially the villages and moors of Devon and the South Cornish coast. The cool, wintery climate as Thiel travels across Westering is inspired by the Canadian winter, particularly the deep soft snowfalls of Ontario. Non-fiction material on these landscapes is also captured in a number of poetry volumes by Lynne, the first of which is Road Trip, River Voices: Canada Liminal.

The abilities and rights of disabled people and how to integrate them into society (or not) are central themes in this book. Thiel himself is physically and mentally disabled and neglected by his parents which exacerbates his social anxiety. Secondly, on his journey through a village with different customs to his own, Thiel finds a child abandoned to die in the street because she has a physical deformity (her spine is malformed but she is otherwise fine). Thiel rescues the child and becomes her guardian, helping him to mature into a man.