Her father’s DAUGHTER
A DISTURBING THRILLER EARNS PRAISE FROM NICKY
There are real-life cases of young women who have been abducted and held captive by men, and also a few novels inspired by them. All tend to be pretty grim.
The Marsh King’s Daughter is different. It’s about a survivor and her life after captivity – and it’s one of the best psychological thrillers of the year, I reckon.
Helena’s mother is kidnapped as a teenager and taken to a cabin in the wilderness where she is kept for years. But as a child, Helena doesn’t realise they are prisoners. She is born in the cabin and it’s the only world she knows. As she grows older, her father Jacob teaches her to track and hunt in order to survive in the marshland, and despite his outbursts of anger and cruelty, Helena is drawn to him far more than she is to her sad, remote mum. All she knows of life is what she reads in old National Geographic magazines and what her parents tell her.
There are two carefully woven strands to this story. In the second, we learn of Helena’s life in the present day. She is married, a mother to two young girls and earning money by making jam from wild plants. No-one knows about her past, not even her husband. Then she learns her father has escaped from prison, killing two guards, and the fragile happiness she has created is threatened.
Helena is certain he will come after her daughters. She has to head out into the wilderness again and use the tracking skills he taught her to hunt him down before he can.
There’s plenty of suspense and tension here, but also no shortage of depth. Helena is conflicted. A part of her still loves and respects her father, despite also desperately fearing him.
It’s chilling and dark for sure, but The Marsh King’s Daughter is also hopeful and Helena is a heroine you won’t forget in a hurry.
The atmosphere of the wilderness is vividly evoked and I felt as if I was there in the frozen marshes with this dysfunctional family. There is also a fairytale element adding an extra layer.
I’m recommending this novel to anyone who loves a page-turning story with taut and terrific prose.