Pearl in the deep wood. The voice of the living trees. Ruth Finnegan. In this, the fifth, volume of the ever recycling Kate-Pearl love story, the voices are those of the trees. They speak both collectively and separately - the beech, the cherry, the cedar, the oak and many many more. In this volume, Kate again tries to redeem her fatal mistake in rejecting "him". She painfully climbs tree after tree to find him. But again and again and again, he is not there. When at last she sees him near the top of the highest tree, she reaches up to him but he then lets her hand slip from his and, abandoning her, continues into heaven on his own. Kate fall agonisingly to the ground and lies there in despair.In heaven he realises what he has done and against all advice goes back to try to find Kate Going down is even harder than up. He has to circle the earth, inch by inch lower in each tree that he clambers down, before he finally finds her and persuades her to climb again. She clambers up a tree near him but is too frightened to jump across to him. Only when he risks falling himself by cutting off the very branch he is clinging to, does she finally dare to jump and they at last enter heaven together. Originating in dreams, the expression is permeated with poetic and literary echoes, recalling the sonic styles of writers like Yeats, Joyce or Hopkins. A unique and enchanting work that immerses the reader in a mystic mythic world.
