Trust me, I don't like novels that are too poetic, or too out there. This remains a mood piece to some extent, but has so much going for it in evoking people and place that I can only recommend this to all.
We at the Bookbag must thank Pocket Books for our review copy. We also have a review of [[The Hunger Trace by Edward Hogan]].
For a different village suffering an unusual outsider badly, we can also recommend [[Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel]], while this book shares a look at the odd with the stories in [[The White Road by Tania Hershman]].