Harvest (Jim Crace novel)

Harvest is a novel by Jim Crace, published in 2013 by Picador. Crace has stated that Harvest would be his final novel.

Harvest was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the inaugural Goldsmiths Prize, shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize (2014), and won the 2013 James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2015.

Harvest tells the story of a remote English village as economic progress disrupts pastoral idyll following the Enclosure Act. The protagonist, Walter Thirsk, tells the story from his perspective, but in fact is rarely present when the events of the novel take place due to his injury that he sustains at the beginning of the novel. The story begins with the arrival of some strangers to the bounds of the village. Following the burning of the stables, a scapegoat is required as no-one wants to admit that one of their own was responsible. Hence a mob sets out in order to find evidence to blame these new arrivals. After a brief altercation with the strangers, they are arrested by Master Kent and chained to the pillory for the week. The woman travelling with them is shaved of her hair, and expected to be submissive to the men of the village.

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