Changes

Pears works chronologically and names each short chapter after its month, making the reader hyper conscious of the way seasons dictate the contents of the novel. ''The Horseman'' is an intensely physical novel; there is hunger, sweat, cold and brutal exhaustion at the end of a day of backbreaking labour. Even when Leo is at school, he is distracted from his work by swallows nesting in the eaves of the school house and an owl in the chimney, completely baffling Miss Pugsley, who knows that her bright, truanting pupil will soon be permanently lost to education. ''The Horseman's'' characters express their psychological state almost entirely physically - which can be frustrating for readers who enjoy analysis of emotions - leaving abundant room for interpretation. Indeed, the novel as a whole feels spare, with the forced pauses after each chapter manifested in physical empty space, and the scarcity of adrenaline. It's fashionable to talk about 'slow fashion' and 'slow journalism'; Pears is a true ambassador for the 'slow reading' movement.

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