The novel focuses on travel and journeys – both real and metaphorical. Just as the Second World War has begun, a Swedish farm girl, Lena, and her precious ponies are kidnapped by the Russian horse thief Pytor. Pytor is cast sympathetically and great emphasis is put on the fact that he had not intended to kidnap the young woman, but that she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Lena is taken from Gotland to Russia in a cargo ship, along with the horses, across the Baltic Sea. The other major journey in the novel is taken by Signewho journeys from Saskatchewan to Russia to explore her dual roots, and to ease some of her constant pain resulting from profound familial loss. Parallel stories are told mainly in the 1940s from Pytor's point of view as well as his sisterMaryushka's perspective.. Pytor and Maryushka's life stories are arresting and also explore their earlier, brutal childhoods in Stalinist Russia before experiencing the horrors of wartime Leningrad.
Lena and Pytor's relationship is the major strength of the book. While Lena is obviously naïve, she is not stupid, and Barclay does a masterful job of convincing the reader that Pytor's redeeming qualities could win Lena's heart despite their troubling beginnings. Lena's love for her horses is also well expressed, and her nearly supernatural abilities with her herd form a key element to her identity. Without question, there is a significant folk tale strand running through the book and Barclay's ability to capture the nuances and subtleties of landscape is exemplary.
In this excerpt, Lena explores the home that she and Pytor will share:
Eggs stored in watery ashes, and she dips a finger into the mush, tastes it: lime and olive oil. But the most astonishing thing of all is a skin bag that she guesses is a calf's stomach containing cheese. She didn't see any cows. Or a garden. Maybe this island isn't as deserted as she first thought, maybe there's a collective farm or village on the far side, hidden by aspen woods...
She finds Pytor unloading the pushcart: furs [...] on the stove, copper pots and pans, the bricks from the potbellied burzhuika to make shelves, his bag of books, an icon of the Madonna and Child, two dufflebags stuffed with their market clothes, his and hers. A battered violin case wrapped in a mothy rabbit skin and tied with a red belt.
When he sees her carrying the basket of fresh fruit and vegetables, he allows a smile brimming over like cream leaking from a butter churn. "We stay here. You like it here?"
"Yes, I like very much."
As written earlier, the novel has two distinct overarching narratives, with smaller, sub-narratives within the larger ones. Unfortunately, this seems to inhibit Barclay's writing style(s); at several turns, the writing style in the chapters on twenty-first century Russia seems fractured. Signe's modern tale is considerably weaker than the ones focusing on Lena, Pytor and Maryushka. Signe's trip to Russia, holding such promise from the outset, never moves beyond anything more than a middling travelogue. Lena steals the novel and I would have enjoyed much more from Barclay regarding Lena's earliest years in Sweden.
Despite all of this, I would recommend The Forest Horses. I think that mature readers will enjoy the book the most. While The Forest Horses never reaches a full gallop, the ride is still worth the time and effort.
