An 1810 quest for the animals that left giant bones

I picked up a copy of Carys Davies's novel West because a British writer whose opinion I respect said it is one of the best books he'd read, a book he returns to from time to time to reread.  I'd never heard of Carys Davies, but with praise like that West sounded like something I should look at.

West (2018) is the author's first novel which she published after two short story collections of short stories, Some New Ambush and The Redemption of Galen Pike, which won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. She is also the recipient of a Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a 2025/26 Fellow at Columbia University’s Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris. She has now published twi additional novels, The Mission House (2020) and Clear (2024),

Born in Wales, Davies grew up there and in England's Midlands, lived and worked worked as a freelance journalist for twelve years in New York and Chicago, and now lives in Edinburgh.

West is a slim book. You can read it in a couple hours even if you are a slow reader. I'd be tempted to call it an extended short story except that it is exceptionally rich and complex. It takes place shortly after Lewis and Clark return from their trek, so around 1810. The central character is Cy Bellman, a widowed Pennsylvania mule breeder, who reads about and is enraptured by a news story that bones of an unknown giant creature have been discovered in Kentucky. Leaving his pre-teen daughter Bess in the care of his sister, Bellman sets off on a Quixotic quest to discover the living animals that the bones had once supported.

The bulk of the novel is an account of Bellman's adventures and the lives of Bess and her aunt in Pennsylvania. The short chapters sketch the significant incidents that take place in these during the two years the book covers. It is remarkable how much meaning Davies can pack into a few pages without sounding rushed or insufficient. The point of view shifts from character to character. Indeed, I was impressed that Davies would introduce a character in the middle of the book only to write her out three pages later. But why not? She's served her purpose, enriched the narrative, and is no longer relevant.

I agree with the writer. West is a remarkable book and worth rereading from time to time.