The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott is an immersive eco-fable featuring 3 females who build their lives from nothing.

Ren lives alone on the remote frontier, deep and high in forested mountains, of a country devastated by a coup. When a young soldier comes in search of a local myth, the Rain Heron, Ren’s and the soldier’s lives change.

Reality and myth get together in this very original story. The Rain Heron hammers into the reader what we’re doing to nature and how nature, and we ourselves, suffer from us. Arnott pushes the boundaries of imagination with his controlled prose. The language isn’t poetic or decorative, as I've found is often the case with mythical stories. The story and characters are powerful enough on their own.

The narrative, too, is perfectly structured. I found the second part of the book confusing in just the right amount to evoke curiosity; I couldn’t tell where the story was going. I thought the final coming together of different narratives and characters is cleverly handled.

There are certain scenes in the book that are quite violent. These scenes always take place further away from the reader as compared to the rest of the story. I'm not sure how to explain this or how Arnott has achieved this, but I found it stunning and thought-provoking.

For example, the opening read as if it occurred around me. But, the scene where a character has their eyes plucked out reads as if it happens elsewhere. Similarly, another scene depicts a violent death. From the moment the violence starts to the moment it ends, I felt transported elsewhere. It’s almost as if the vantage point shifts without a change in tone of voice, point of narration, or writing style. Perhaps it’s because of the actual distance Arnott puts between crowded areas and where these particular scenes take place. He explains how long someone drove, how far someone sailed, or how secluded a place was. I read this book back in 2021 and I still think about this peculiar reading experience.

Overall, I absolutely loved Rain Heron and would definitely recommend it. It also reminded me a lot of Isle of Dreams by Keizo Hino and Man With the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming Yi, as all these books have similar themes.

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