Drift: Winner of the Wales Book of the Year

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He didn’t question it, he just said, “Well this is where we live, this is where I am now, and this is the language that will connect me to the people and to the landscape,” and he just learnt the language and speaks it fluently. This is a mentored review produced as part of a graduate placement with ABERforward careers department.

In a sense, Nefyn is also a prisoner, her senses suppressed via the illicit medication her brother Joseph administers. The novel rides the wave (sic) of magical realism without perhaps fully conjuring that transcendent space.It has a bit of a slow build-up to the climax, and at times it feels less plot-driven and far more focused on character exploration, but if you don't mind that sort of book, this is a very interesting read. Moving between the wild Welsh coast and war-torn Syria, Drift is a love story with a difference, and a hypnotic tale of lost identity, the quest for home and the wondrous resilience of the human spirit.

So the Welsh version and the English version will be published on the same day, one with Macmillan and one with a small Welsh publisher, so the children who have read my work before can have the choice of Welsh or English. However, it is more likely that it is the pills and Nefyn’s dual affinity to land and sea that leave people with that impression. So, when it comes to the sea, regarding even part of it as ‘military waters’ comes across as a gorgeously sardonic moment from the author when one considers the powerful and overarching presence of the ocean throughout Drift. I wish someone had explained that this meant it had a strong fantasy plotline that was not hinted at in the blurb. For example, it’s not said whether Arianell, Nefyn and Joseph’s mother, is a selkie, but it is implied, since selkies are known for their cloaks: ‘She had a cloak; when he caught her, he hid it.The film adaptation – with a screenplay by Caryl herself – went on to win six Welsh BAFTAs and the Spirit of the Festival Award at the 2010 Celtic Media Festival.

Welsh people are celebrated for our hills and valleys, but we don’t see that much about the coastline somehow, which is strange. It’s a sea that is a permanent, brooding character in this novel, just as there is something of the tide about Nefyn, ‘sometimes somehow close, within his grasp, but at other times slipping away.For fans of THE LAMPLIGHTERS and EXIT WEST, the hauntingly atmospheric English-language debut from the acclaimed, multi-award-winning Welsh author: a mesmerising love story between a young Welsh woman and a Syrian mapmaker. War casts its pall of shadow and gunsmoke over much of the book, ‘smothering everything,’ rubbing out ‘traditions, kindness, joy’ and making ‘people’s lives invisible. The deadening of the sea as the weight of the storm rolled in, a deep disconcerting inhalation of the sky.

Perhaps that’s why it fell away for me in the last section, when the story goes from beautifully judged characters and mystery to a plotline which for me was unnecessarily fantastical. A truly beautiful and haunting novel, and an incredible feat of storytelling' DONAL RYAN, author of FROM A LOW AND QUIET SEA 'A tender, unusual and gorgeously wrought love story' RACHEL JOYCE, author of THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY'In times of war, Lewis finds resilience, redemption and hope.The hauntingly atmospheric English-language debut from the acclaimed Welsh author: a love story between a young Welsh woman and a Syrian mapmaker, rich with magic, mystery and the wonder of the sea. Meanwhile, The Poetry Award went to Paul Henry for As If to Sing (Seren Poetry Wales Press Ltd) and The Creative Non-Fiction Award was won by Isabel Adonis for And… a memoir of my mother (Black Bee Books).