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• Initially I approached this book with some caution. The only other Andrew Miller novel I’d read many years before was Ingenious Pain, and although I could see that it was a great novel, I did find it hard going at the time. The premise of his latest though was so attractive, and by the second chapter I was hooked on this rather original historical novel.Pure is set in 1785, shortly before the French Revolution. Jean-Baptiste Baratte is a young Norman engineer, hired by the King’s offices to oversee the cleansing of an overfilled Parisian cemetery, that is poisoning the earth and air all around it. Nice job eh? Jean-Baptiste heads off into Paris, where lodgings have been set up with a local family overlooking the cemetery. He soon makes friends with Armand, the church organist, and finds that everything smells better after a brandy or two. He contacts his colleague from his last job at the mines at Valenciennes – Lecoeur will bring a team of miners to Paris to dig out the cemetery. Jeanne, the teenaged grand-daughter of the sexton will look after the men – indeed most of them grow to love her as their own daughter.All is set and the excavation is underway. Some doctors arrive, including one Dr Guillotin – yes! He is there to examine the bones, but his presence will prove necessary on many occasions over the following months – injury, illness, attempted murder, rape, suicide – everything will happen to those involved on this job. But it’s not all bad, for Jean-Baptiste will also find love in an unexpected place.The story is entirely that of Jean Baptiste – he is present on every page. He’s conscientious, and good to his men, but can be persuaded to let his hair down occasionally. The young engineer is a very likeable hero and an interesting young man. In between the gruelling work to reclaim the ground from the cemetery, we do get glimpses of the bustling markets and streets around the Les Halles area of Paris where the novel is set, and even radical murmurings. The historical detail is both rich and absolutely spot on, I liked the way that Miller echoed Victor Hugo in his style when Baratte's former patron is referred to as the 'Compte de S-'.The major business of the novel is the job in hand though. In this respect, (with my tongue in my cheek slightly), it is the opposite of Ken Follett’s enjoyable blockbuster novel The Pillars of the Earth, in which a cathedral is built over generations rather, than removed in a year. In both, however, the work is the star – and it was actually fascinating to read. I will have to re-read Ingenious Pain and catch up on others of Miller’s backlist – I do have most of them in the TBR, as I enjoyed Pure very much indeed. This was a brilliant historical novel with literary nous, and I wouldn’t have been surprised to see it as a Booker longlist contender.

  4.50 out of 5

  gaskella

• This novel recently won the Costa Literary Prize, and it is easy to see why. Beautifully written, the novel tells of the commission given to Jean-Baptiste Barratte, a young engineer from Normandy, to supervise the demolition and deconsecration of the huge l'Eglise des Innocents in Paris in 1785, having first arranged for the mass disinterment of all the bodies in the cemetery grounds.The local residents have mixed feelings - the church and cemetery dominate the area, casting a widespread pall of extreme melancholia, but they feel that it is THEIR church. However, Barratte is commissioned by the Minister who will brook no delay.Barratte begins his task assisted by Lecoeur, a former colleague from mining work in Valenciennes, and a troupe of thirty barely literate Flemish miners. Miller marvellously conveys the squalor of their daily existence. The miners are encamped in the cemetery grounds, gradually surrounded by the wall of bones that they retrieve from the charnel pits. Not surprisingly in such circumstances, the veneer of civilised behaviour starts to wear thin...

  4.00 out of 5

  Eyejaybee

• This tale of the clearing of a cemetery in the middle of Paris takes place just before the French Revolution. A naive provincial engineer spends a year of his life organising the works; his life is changed dramatically through his experiences. A very sensory novel, the smells, tastes, sounds and sights of Les Innocents and its surroundings pervade every page.

  4.00 out of 5

  lizchris

• A thoroughly engaging and interesting novel that centers on the work of a young engineer tasked with the demolition of a church and the cemetery around it – including the exhumation and removal of all those buried there. Set in late 18th Century Paris, just before the French Revolution, the story is rich with atmosphere and well developed characters. I was fascinated before I’d finished the first chapter and by Chapter 6 had reached the “can’t put it down “ stage. A very enjoyable and satisfying read.

  3.50 out of 5

  thejohnsmith

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