The Book of Dust - Volume One: La Belle Sauvage

This was my second reading of the first volume of The Book of Dust, and it was every bit as exciting as the first time. Don’t be deceived into thinking this is just a children’s fantasy novel - Pullman defies age categories with his books, which although they have young protagonists, they also lean into some dark (often violent) spaces. This tale is part spy story, part mythical odyssey, part river voyage.

La Belle Sauvage begins as a comfortable story about an eleven year old boy called Malcom, who lives at The Trout Inn with his parents, in Oxford. He is very intelligent, handy and unassuming, kindly helping out the Nun’s at the priory over the river from his pub. He gets to the priory (and everywhere else), in his treasured canoe - La Belle Sauvage. An older girl called Alice also helps out in The Trout, and although her and Malcom don’t get on, she has a much greater part to play down the line. Malcom meets a Scholar turned spy, his school mates join a religious cult, and a baby named Lyra is sent to live under the protection of his beloved nuns. And always, the incessant rain keeps filling the rivers, higher and higher, until one day - the banks burst. A thrilling downstream tale of rescue, escape, chase and old English river magic follows as the story is swept away by the current.

They’d have to move soon, though. Malcolm looked at that wild waste, and his heart quailed. His little boat, and all that force of water…Calm rivers and still backwaters and shallow canals were one thing. This was another thing entirely.

Pullman has a wonderful way with character development, drawing especially on folklore and valuing different kinds of expertise - both scholars and Gyptians are held in equal mantle as wise guides. In a world inhabited by people who have daemons (their souls in animal companion form), the reader can draw their own conclusions about a person without needing much information at all. It’s one of the many traits throughout this series that I find the most ingenious. For example, a softly spoken, charming man may take the reader in - but his maimed hyena daemon, who cackles and pisses in plain view to mark her territory, suggests there is something more sinister behind this character.

Then it started to rain, so she went inside and made some coffee and did what she had never done in her life: tried the newspaper crossword. “What a stupid exercise,” said her dæmon after five minutes. “Words belong in contexts, not pegged out like biological specimens.

Sanctuary versus savagery is a key theme throughout the novel, and so cosily familiar are the safe spaces that I want to climb inside the pages and join Malcom for some baked apples and custard by the fire. There is also a coming of age thread that evolves as the story goes on, as the events get darker, deeper and more mystical - and feelings of a much older person are forced to the surface to aid survival.

There’s so much more I could say, but I’d rather you just read (or listened) to it for yourself… even if you haven’t read His Dark Materials (which you’ll definitely want to after you’ve finished this one). It’s an engrossing, exciting read - perfect for a cold, January evening.

CW: Violence, Swearing, Murder, Drowning