Adam Nevill - Cunning Folk

All illustrations by Samuel Araya

Tom, seine Frau Fiona, ihre kleine Tochter Gracey, samt Spanielwelpe Archie, sind frische Besitzer eines Eigenheims. Das stark renovierungs- und reparaturbedürftige, um nicht zu sagen verwahrloste Haus in dem fiktiven Örtchen Eadric, in Englands Südwesten, hat schon bessere Zeiten gesehen. Die schrecklichen Vorkommnisse, die zum Ableben des Vorbesitzers, wie auch zum erschwinglichen Kaufpreis ihres Anwesens führten, haben Tom und Fiona der vierjährigen Gracey geflissentlich vorenthalten. Keiner der ehemaligen Besitzer ist lange geblieben und die Frage nach dem "Warum", lässt nicht allzu lange auf sich warten. Als sich Tom an die Renovierung und Fiona an die Einrichtung der Räumlichkeiten des alten Gemäuers machen, bemerken beide unabhängig voneinander, dass sich ihre zwergenhaften Nachbarn mit ihren albernen Frisuren sonderbar verhalten. Sie bemerken seltsame Interaktionen der Dame des Hauses mit Besuchern, die ständig Toms und Fionas Einfahrt zuparken. Das direkt an hier Haus gebaute Anwesen von Magi und Medea Moot, die sich offensichtlich in ihren frühen 70ern befinden, ist eine Augenweide viktorianischer Baukunst, ohne jeglichen Renovierungsstau. Dort drüben scheint sogar der Garten grüner, lebendiger und sonniger, als ihr eigener. Ihr neues Zuhause hingegen, eine einzige Katastrophe. Tom, Fiona und Gracey bekommen Albträume. Geplagt von Geldsorgen und einem enormen Renovierungsaufwand erfahren sie mentale Veränderungen. Eine fatale Symbiose aus Unwohlsein, Erschöpfung, Katatonie, Beklemmung, Desorientierung, Halluzinationen, Schwindelgefühlen, Angst und Schrecken, welche die junge Familie allmählich in den Wahnsinn zu treiben scheint, kriecht tief in ihre Imagination. Tom wird über alle Maßen von dem immer groteskeren Gebaren der Moots eingenommen. Verbale Auseinandersetzungen mit Fiona sind vorprogrammiert. Die Familie droht an der Situation zu zerbrechen. Als Tom, aufgrund des übergriffigen und okkulten Treibens der Nachbarn allmählich durchdreht und einen Streit mit ihnen vom Zaun bricht, ist er sich nicht im Geringsten darüber im Klaren, mit welch gefährlicher Klientel er sich da anlegt.

English Version:

It's probably been 20 years since I last tackled a novel in the original English version. And since shortly after my interview with the British writer Adam L. G. Nevill (from January 17th, 2024) I had purchased, among others of his works, the bound and signed edition of "Cunning Folk", from his Ritual Unlimited distribution, it was in line with the recently published German first publication by Buchheim Verlag, to mentally absorb the original together with the German translation. While the bound, English original edition from 2021 (here 2nd edition from 2023) has a mega ingenious "anti-slip" feel, the 28th volume of the Cemetery Dance Germany series, is equipped with illustrations by the Paraguayan artist Samuel Araya, with whom Nevill has been working for a long time. The original edition of "Cunning Folk" is not an "easy-going", because of the exceptionally engaging, sophisticated and flowery language of the author, who was born in Birmingham in 1969. Nevill is an empathetic narrator who places great emphasis on tangible descriptions of events, as well as the feelings, moods, impressions and intentions of his protagonists. The British kayak fan does this with a pointed enthusiasm, incorporating a profound, mystical and ever-increasing dramaturgy into his complex folk and haunted house horror novels. An excerpt from my introduction to the interview with the Brit makes this extremely clear: "Adam Nevill's folk horror novels, surrounded by supernatural magic and madness, are delicately constructed gems that stimulate the mind and create plenty of space for your own views and interpretations. Through his slightly dreamy writing style, he inspires all the variables of mental states, not least on a metaphysical level. The Brit is a literary illusionist, a seducer of the senses and a deceiver of the mind who has left his own stamp on the horror genre." The creative diversity of his descriptions and his gift for wrapping the auditory, olfactory, gustatory, visual and kinesthetic perceptions of his characters in tailor-made verbal garments are true art in literature. Especially in the supposedly quieter passages in which the action of his works is limited, Nevill evokes mysterious, disturbing and oppressive images in the minds of his readers, which the exceptional writer transforms into a horrifying essence of melodrama, passion, tragedy, fears and desires , hopes and fears.

Tom, his wife Fiona, their little daughter Gracey, along with their spaniel puppy Archie, are new homeowners. The house in the fictional town of Eadric, in England's southwest, is in dire need of renovation and repair, not to say scruffy and has seen better days. The information about the terrible events that led to the death of the previous owner as well as the affordable purchase price of their property, Tom and Fiona deliberately withheld from four-year-old Gracey. None of the former owners stayed for long and the question of “why” is not long in coming. When Tom sets about renovating and Fiona sets about furnishing the rooms in the old building, they both independently notice that their dwarf neighbors with their silly hairstyles are behaving strangely. They notice strange interactions between the lady of the house and visitors who keep parking in Tom and Fiona's driveway. The property of Magi and Medea Moot, who are obviously in their early 70s, is built wall-to-wall to their house and a feast for the eyes of Victorian architecture, without any renovation backlog. Even the garden over there seems greener, livelier and sunnier than their own. Their new home, on the other hand, is a complete disaster. Tom, Fiona and Gracey start having nightmares. Plagued by money worries and an enormous renovation effort, they experience mental changes. A fatal symbiosis of malaise, exhaustion, catatonia, anxiety, disorientation, hallucinations, dizziness, fear and terror, which gradually seems to drive the young family crazy, creeps deep into their imagination. Tom is completely taken over by the increasingly grotesque behavior of the Moots. Verbal arguments with Fiona are inevitable. The family threatens to break up because of the situation. When Tom gradually goes crazy due to the neighbors' invasive and occult activities of his neighbours and kicks a dispute, he is not at all aware of the dangerous clientele he is dealing with.

Adam Nevill, who now lives in Devon with his wife and daughter, relies on a leisurely introduction of his readers to the eerie, mysterious horror backdrop. This creates cinematic sequences on the mental screen, which in the case of the bizarre couple Magi and Medea Moot, their vital and colorful garden, the adjacent forest in which surreal things take place, as well as the many psychedelic suggestions, indoctrinations and manipulations, always remind you of components from Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland", Stephen King's "Cemetery of Stuffed Animals" or Thomas Olde Heuvelt's Remember “November”. Just a lot nastier. The psychologically and rhetorically versed juggler plays with the unknown, the disgusting, the supernatural and the inexplicable, which infiltrate the minds of his protagonists and readers and increasingly occupy them. This cerebral horror takes a while to arrive, but it escalates immeasurably and becomes really nasty and evil! The virtuoso, who grew up in England and New Zealand, incorporates patterns of occultism, witchcraft, sorcery and black magic into his texts and conjures up an insidious, even malicious atmosphere. A truly ingenious concept, with an almost tactile atmosphere, wrapped in a dark and powerful vision, as if made for the screen! However, I am not really satisfied with Christian Jentzsch's translation. Nevill's language is much too stiff, hasty, bumpy and dull for me. Words were unavoidably translated incorrectly (e.g. “two tears” = two cracks; hooded = blinded, etc.) and entire half-sentences were excluded. Really annoying. Not that I can do it better, but some certainly can do it much smoother. I was so glad at this point that I had the original at hand!

(Janko)