A Place of Greater Safety

...By Its Cover, Vol 1. No. 1.

I this inaugural edition of …By Its Cover, I review A Place of Greater Safety, by Hilary Mantel (a first edition I found online). Because of the vast number of book recommendations on Substack, and only so many hours in the day, there is no chance I will ever have time to actually read them all, so I am left with the only rational option left: to judge books by their cover.

This month’s selection tells the story of a pious young man, Phillippe, living in 18th Century Paris. He lives under the constant threat of scandalous wardrobe malfunctions and general debauchery. Under the effects of la grippe, Phillipe has a disturbing fever dream, where he is visited by a prophetic penguin in a lightning storm, telling him to find a place of greater safety in the mountains where he can be closer to God. The young man resettles in a tiny village nestled in the Swiss Alps. In a twist of fate, he neglected to account for the very real risk of avalanches, and suddenly finds himself a bit closer to God than he intended.

This is a classic tale of “the grass is always greener,” but told with a unique point of view. As far as I can tell, there were no ninjas in the story, but given their stealth can you ever really be sure? I enjoyed this book so much, I am hoping to find time later this year to actually read it as part of the Footnotes & Tangents read along (no promises). I can understand why there are so many devoted Hilary Mantel fans.

My overall rating: 9.5/10.