Ill Will ★★

Michael Stewart, HarperCollins, R285

One of the great mysteries in Wuthering

Heights is Heathcliff’s three-year absence when he got his wealth. In Ill Will, in those missing years, Heathcliff returns to Liverpool. While travelling, he meets Emily, and the pair make their way together, and seek answers to Heathcliff’s questions. It is a mammoth task to add to a narrative penned over 150 years ago. This book is jarring, much like Heathcliff himself, and has a contemporary voice filled with anger and violence. Heathcliff was unpolished, Stewart’s style is a contrast from the gentle darkness created by Bronte, making the two narratives incompatible.