Undersong

By: Kathleen Winter

Narrated by: Tim Bruce, Nneka Okoye, Clare Kissane

Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

“A stunning, spellbinding, poetic triumph." (Toronto Star)

From Giller-shortlisted author Kathleen Winter (author of the best seller Annabel): A stunning novel reimagining the lost years of misunderstood Romantic Era genius Dorothy Wordsworth.

When young James Dixon, a local jack-of-all-trades recently returned from the Battle of Waterloo, meets Dorothy Wordsworth, he quickly realizes he’s never met another woman anything like her. In her early 30s, Dorothy has already lived a wildly unconventional life. And as her famous brother William Wordsworth’s confidante and creative collaborator - considered by some in their circle to be the secret to his success as a poet - she has carved a seemingly idyllic existence for herself, alongside William and his wife, in England’s Lake District.

One day, Dixon is approached by William to do some handiwork around the Wordsworth estate. Soon he takes on more and more chores - and quickly understands that his real, unspoken responsibility is to keep an eye on Dorothy, who is growing frail and melancholic. The unlikely pair of misfits form a sympathetic bond despite the troubling chasm in social class between them, and soon Dixon is the quiet witness to everyday life in Dorothy’s family and glittering social circle, which includes literary legends Samuel Coleridge, Thomas de Quincy, William Blake, and Charles and Mary Lamb.

Through the fictional James Dixon - a gentle but troubled soul, more attuned to the wonders of the garden he faithfully tends than to vexing worldly matters - we step inside the Wordsworth family, witnessing their dramatic emotional and artistic struggles, hidden traumas, private betrayals and triumphs. At the same time, Winter slowly weaves a darker, complex “undersong” through the novel, one as earthy and elemental as flower and tree, gradually revealing the pattern of Dorothy's rich, hidden life - that of a woman determined, against all odds, to exist on her own terms. But the unsettling effects of Dorothy’s tragically repressed brilliance take their toll, and when at last her true voice sings out, it is so searing and bright that Dixon must make an impossible choice.

©2021 Kathleen Winter (P)2021 Knopf Canada

Critic reviews

“[C]onsistently elegant and original. It is very much a book about language and atmosphere. Winter mimics period style beautifully, and she also infuses the novel with unconventional touches—like the brief interstitial sections narrated by a sycamore tree on the Wordsworth property—that arguably conjure the idiosyncratic spirit of her heroine better than any first-person narration could have achieved.” (Quill & Quire, starred review)

"Kathleen Winter is a rare talent.... [Her] version of Dorothy Wordsworth’s story reveals the rich, hidden life of a woman determined against all societal expectations to live on her own terms.... Compelling, gracefully written, poignant and profound, Winter’s novel glimmers and beckons.... Undersong is a stunning, spellbinding, poetic triumph." (Toronto Star)

"Gorgeous, era-evoking prose.”—The Globe and Mail