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Ruth F Hunt
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The Single Feather Paperback – 14 Feb. 2015

by Ruth F Hunt (Author), Pilrig Press (Editor), Photo by Sally-Ann Tatlock (Illustrator),
4.5 out of 5 stars 101 ratings
Rachel flees her past to build a new life for herself. But living a lie isn't easy.
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  1. Print length
    318 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Pilrig Press
  4. Publication date
    14 Feb. 2015
  5. Dimensions
    13.2 x 2.3 x 19.8 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0992723426
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0992723422
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Product description

Review

Rachel flees her past to build a new life for herself. But living a lie isn't easy. She struggles with a guilty conscience and the fear of being exposed. Eventually, she has to decide: tell the truth and risk all, or say nothing and betray everything she has ever believed in. A stunning debut novel written with intelligence and clarity. Rachel's efforts to belong exposes our prejudices against those more vulnerable in society while shining a light on the power of friendship and the importance of being part of a community. Marianne Wheelaghan, bestselling author of The Blue Suitcase and Food of Ghosts --Third party author review

An intense, bittersweet story for anyone who's ever doubted themselves. Louisa Dang, author of The Rain Catcher, winner of Duke University Writers Workshop Fiction Prize --Third party author review

About the Author

Ruth Hunt is a writer and artist from the north of England. The Single Feather is her first novel, published by Pilrig Press.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pilrig Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 14 Feb. 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 318 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0992723426
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0992723422
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 340 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.2 x 2.3 x 19.8 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 101 ratings

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Ruth F Hunt

Ruth F Hunt

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
101 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this book thought-provoking and true to life, with a gripping narrative that opens their eyes to various situations. The writing style is beautifully articulated with touching honesty, and the characters are brilliantly observed, with one customer noting the refreshing portrayal of a disabled heroine. Customers praise the book's well-crafted nature and its ability to draw readers in from the beginning.

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32 customers mention ‘Uplifting story’32 positive0 negative

Customers find this book thought-provoking and moving, with true and sobering insights that open their eyes to various situations.

"...The Single Feather has a bold, important story to tell, illuminating the world of a young woman stifled by secrets - her own and others' - that are..." Read more

"...This is a highly topical work, with its themes of disability prejudice, the anti-welfare propaganda machine, the gig economy, capitalism in decline...." Read more

"...I found it a thought-provoking book with a caste of interesting characters each with their own issues that are not immediately obvious to the group...." Read more

"...It’s an uplifting, thoughtful book about overcoming the past, adversity, depression, loneliness. I look forward to another book by this author." Read more

27 customers mention ‘Readability’27 positive0 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as a brilliant first novel and a timely work that deals powerfully with its subject matter.

"...of a story, an unforgettable central character, and the slowly turned prism of a life you will not soon want to leave behind. Highly recommended." Read more

"This is a terrific first novel: The Single Feather grabbed me from the first page, and I was immediately hooked...." Read more

"...is providing me with plenty of time to read and this book is very readable - I found it hard to put down especially towards the end...." Read more

"I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I always thought I understood the difficulties that people with disabilities face but this added several more layers..." Read more

23 customers mention ‘Character development’23 positive0 negative

Customers praise the character development in the book, noting the brilliant observations and likeable narrator, with one customer particularly appreciating the refreshing portrayal of a disabled heroine.

"...pure reading pleasure: a tightening coil of a story, an unforgettable central character, and the slowly turned prism of a life you will not soon..." Read more

"...The characters are all thoroughly believable, brilliantly and succinctly drawn. Then there’s the DWP stuff...." Read more

"...I found it a thought-provoking book with a caste of interesting characters each with their own issues that are not immediately obvious to the group...." Read more

"...organisation and institutional abuse - it's all exposed with great humanity and in a straightforward way...." Read more

18 customers mention ‘Writing style’18 positive0 negative

Customers praise the writing style of the book, describing it as beautifully articulated with touching honesty, and one customer notes its raw ability to paint a picture with words.

"...a thriller while artfully varying the pace with a more meditative, literary style that takes the reader deep into the private world of Rachel, the..." Read more

"...The characters are all thoroughly believable, brilliantly and succinctly drawn. Then there’s the DWP stuff...." Read more

"...Thank you Ruth for your insightful and empathic thought provoking writing, When is the next one coming out!" Read more

"...It’s an uplifting, thoughtful book about overcoming the past, adversity, depression, loneliness. I look forward to another book by this author." Read more

12 customers mention ‘Pacing’12 positive0 negative

Customers find the pacing of the book engaging, with one review noting how it draws readers in from the onset and keeps them interested until the end.

"...disability, expressed in a splendid, furious style that is never less than exhilarating...." Read more

"This is a terrific first novel: The Single Feather grabbed me from the first page, and I was immediately hooked...." Read more

"...This is a quiet book that deals with people who are, if not quiet, then at any rate unheard...." Read more

"...one woman's growth from one part of her life to another... Beautiful, special and totally amazing read...." Read more

4 customers mention ‘Craftedness’4 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the craftsmanship of the book, with one noting its hidden strength and another highlighting its vulnerability.

"...with, neither saint nor sinner the main character is both strong and vulnerable...." Read more

"I highly recommend this well-crafted and engaging debut novel by RF Hunt...." Read more

"...Rachel is a very well crafted and enjoyable character, not because of her difficulties but in spite of them, which is pretty much the best way of..." Read more

"...Rachel is a very good character, with some real hidden strength, and the way she begins to win over the new people in her life is a very heart-..." Read more

Page 300
5 out of 5 stars
Page 300
Finished reading this book last night . What a brilliant and captivating read it was.I was totally immersed in it from the very beginning..Certainly opened my eyes to situations and I hope that the more people who read this become less judgemental when they don't know the reality of why people behave/act as they do. I know 'there but for the grace of God' I could have been in a couple of those situations and I do try..I now have a mission for Spring/Summer, to go to Dream as my Dad used to work underneath that ground down the Pit..I didn't know about Dream, so "thank you" Ruth...Looking forward to your next book xx
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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Anthony Trevelyan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 June 2015
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    This is a fabulous book - engrossing, absorbing, and warmly humane. Ruth Hunt's great skill here is in her seamless manipulation of genre, offering the white-knuckle pleasures of a thriller while artfully varying the pace with a more meditative, literary style that takes the reader deep into the private world of Rachel, the novel's superlatively realised narrator and protagonist.

    The Single Feather has a bold, important story to tell, illuminating the world of a young woman stifled by secrets - her own and others' - that are just beginning to break surface. The textures of Rachel's everyday existence, her neighbours and friends and above all her mother, are beautifully conveyed, while a thread of anxiety runs unsettlingly throughout, promising the hard, final reckoning that Rachel can at last no longer avoid. And yet this book offers a further dimension of resonance in its acutely observed and often exquisitely painful representation of Rachel's life with disability. Hunt is unsparing in her revelations of the inadequacy of many responses to disability, and achieves hotly comic effects in several marvellously judged set-pieces of scandalous social embarrassment. Better still, in Rachel she gives us a character who is in no sense defined by her disability, but rather (and how sad it is that this remains such a rarity in fiction) a fully rounded, completely convincing psychological being, as flawed and frustrating as she is an impatient delight.

    The novel has a great deal to say about the social obstacles faced by people with disability, expressed in a splendid, furious style that is never less than exhilarating. But above all The Single Feather offers pure reading pleasure: a tightening coil of a story, an unforgettable central character, and the slowly turned prism of a life you will not soon want to leave behind. Highly recommended.
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  • Ted Curtis
    5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific first novel.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2017
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    This is a terrific first novel: The Single Feather grabbed me from the first page, and I was immediately hooked. Part charming tale of love and friendship, of starting over in a new place, part political polemic (but without being hectoring), this is what people mean when they say unputdownable, and I had to force myself into bed each night, keen for the morning when I could pick it up again. The characters are all thoroughly believable, brilliantly and succinctly drawn. Then there’s the DWP stuff. A fellow student once said to me of a piece of writing, that was powerful, that made me feel something I didn’t want to feel; and there you have it. This is a highly topical work, with its themes of disability prejudice, the anti-welfare propaganda machine, the gig economy, capitalism in decline. I suppose these are the things that really got me going, but there’s so much more here than that, in case you’re so soul-sick and jaded, that sort of thing doesn’t bother you. There’s the perennial threat of romance, the to-ing and fro-ing of interpersonal relationships, and a compelling mystery from the first page on – namely, what did Rachel do that she feels so guilty about, the thing that put her in her wheelchair? And who are the guards? A car accident is suggested, but there seems to be more to it than that, and the drip-feeding of hints and information is carefully controlled as the pace of The Single Feather incrementally builds. I won’t say more, I don’t want to spoil it for you. Buy it and read it, you won’t be disappointed. Full marks Ruth.
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  • elizabeth aebi
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking thoroughly readable book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 March 2020
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    I came across this book around the same time as I came across Ruth Hunt on twitter - synchronicity! The current COVID19 situation is providing me with plenty of time to read and this book is very readable - I found it hard to put down especially towards the end. The right kind of book to read on a chilly Spring day with a sniping wind out in the garden getting my daily dose of Vitamin D.
    Although I have now finished the book I find myself still thinking about it's main character Rachel and the psychological processes she experienced as she managed the transition into a 'normal' world where disability still is not fully empathically regarded. In the end I realised that all the characters were yearning to belong, to be part of a group and this is of course a key human need. I found it a thought-provoking book with a caste of interesting characters each with their own issues that are not immediately obvious to the group. The motto "Don't judge a book by its cover" came to mind for these characters like us in the real world, are often judged by what others see in us that usually is not there. If only we all knew each other better - is one of the lessons of this book. Thank you Ruth for your insightful and empathic thought provoking writing, When is the next one coming out!
    One person found this helpful
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  • Rachel
    4.0 out of 5 stars A quiet book that speaks for the unheard.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 July 2015
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    Although main character Rachel’s being in a wheelchair provides the mystery – why is she in a wheelchair; what was her crime; who were the guards - the story focuses mostly elsewhere, on Rachel’s attempts to settle into an art group that meets in a community centre. Through her, we meet a motley crew of characters whose only common ground is their love of painting and drawing. Ruth Hunt is very good at depicting shades of grey in people. No one is black and white. A character, such as Anne, will say the most appalling, insulting things to another character but then help that same person in a practical way. The reader might find some, or even most, of the characters unlikeable but will sympathise with their tragic backstories, frail mental health or difficult home lives even when they’re part of their own downfall.
    If you like your books epic or thrill-a-minute, The Single Feather won’t be for you. This is a quiet book that deals with people who are, if not quiet, then at any rate unheard. It’s an uplifting, thoughtful book about overcoming the past, adversity, depression, loneliness. I look forward to another book by this author.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Mike Robbins
    5.0 out of 5 stars Flawed, but powerful and humane
    Reviewed in the United States on 7 November 2015
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    I struggled with this book at first and nearly put it aside. I am glad I didn’t. At first I was underwhelmed, but halfway through the book I was suddenly gripped by it. This is an unusual and humane story.

    Told in the first person, Ruth F. Hunt’s novel The Single Feather is set in the north of England. It begins with a young disabled woman, Rachel, escaping from a bungalow, being picked up by her mother outside and driven away as quickly as possible. Why was she being kept in the bungalow? Who were the people in it that she refers to as her guards? None of this is answered, at least for now; instead, we see Rachel beginning a new life, settled by her mother into a house that has been adapted for the disabled. From then on, the story revolves around Rachel’s efforts to make her life anew, mainly through an art group she joins in a local community centre.

    It is the diversity of the people in that group, and their reactions to each other, that are the core of this book. Key to this is how they react to Rachel’s disability and that of two other people in the group who are also disabled. At the same time, we see that the rest of the group, as individuals, all have issues and challenges of their own that are not as obvious, but are also real. In particular, one of the least sympathetic turns out to have deep sadnesses in her own life that she can’t express.

    The Single Feather has some challenges for the reader. Hunt begins with Rachel’s dramatic rescue from the bungalow, but we are not told until much later why she was held there, or why she was disabled. There are reasons for this, but it is irritating, and in general the pace of the book’s first half is too slow. At times there is too much detail. But then the art group start to plan a show; and that show, and its aftermath, starts to bring the characters to life. The show is followed by a bitter argument between the members over one of their number who is disabled and unwell, and the rights and wrongs of his dependence on benefits. This is so well done, and felt so true to life, that at one point I wanted to leave work early to get back to the book. In its final chapters, The Single Feather delivers a powerful message about perceptions of disability and mental health.

    That would in itself be an achievement, but this book does more than that. In recent years many in Britain have felt that the poor, and those who claim benefits of any kind, are being demonised. One of the most powerful things about Hunt’s book, though she doesn’t major on it, is that it asks why. The people in the art group who attack others for being on benefits are not themselves wealthy or privileged. A food bank opens in the town and the locals express disapproval, saying that if people can queue up for food, then they’re capable of getting jobs. At one point, Rachel’s friend Kate asks whether these divisions are an accident; do those in power want to stir up such hatred, she asks? It’s a good question. All over the Western world the less fortunate are being encouraged to blame their ills on those who are even less, rather than more, fortunate than they are. Why? Whose interest is served by these divisions? As a lawyer would put it, cui bono – who benefits?

    We do, in the end, find out who Rachel’s captors in the bungalow were, and why she was disabled in the first place. Both are important, and we should have been told earlier. There are also places where this book could have been better-paced and more tightly edited. In the end, though, it doesn’t matter. Ruth F. Hunt’s book packs a serious punch in several areas; not least the way we treat those who are different, and the way our sympathies are manipulated. It also addresses, not only intolerance, but our perceptions of those we perceive as intolerant. Despite its flaws, I can’t give The Single Feather less than five stars.
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  • Allison Renner
    5.0 out of 5 stars but overall it’s a great book.
    Reviewed in the United States on 5 September 2016
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    Rachel is a thirty year old woman who uses a wheelchair, and after escaping from a heavily-guarded home, she lives independently in a new town in England. To try and get her old life back, she joins a local art group and makes friends with some of the locals. The story is really compelling, and I was very drawn in to find out what happened in Rachel’s past as her disability was caused by an accident, and she doesn’t reveal much about the home she escaped from. The ebook I read had a lot of punctuation errors, especially with quotation marks, which occasionally took me out of the story, but overall it’s a great book.
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  • Louisa J. Dang
    5.0 out of 5 stars Uplifting, inspiring, and honest
    Reviewed in the United States on 11 March 2015
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    The Single Feather tells the story of Rachel, a woman disabled at an early age who must start her life over again after she escapes a terrible situation. The novel starts with a bang as Rachel, with the help of her mother, manages to sneak past the "carers" (they are referred to as "guards" throughout the novel, and you soon find out why) and escape to a new town and home of her own. It's a nail-biting scene, and the anxiety follows Rachel (and the readers) as she struggles to make friends and feel accepted in the art group she joins. I was appalled at the ignorant, rude comments toward Rachel, just because she uses a wheelchair; it was a real eye opener! But there's also a great tenderness to the story, as you learn about all the characters and what they've had to struggle through - disabilities, mental illness, family strife... In the end, I really cared about the group of friends, and it was quite emotional to say goodbye to them! Well written and a great read!
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  • Melanie L. Hutter
    4.0 out of 5 stars Heartwarming and Courageous Story
    Reviewed in the United States on 28 August 2015
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    This was a beautifully written story about bravery, hope, and thoughtfulness. The main character, Rachel was such a wonderfully described character, that I felt as though I knew her. All of the characters had such wonderful personalities. I loved this book, Ruth Hunt did such an amazing job telling the story of this very brave young woman and her adventures of moving to a new place all alone. It was delightful reading as she encountered each new character and how they interacted at first and how their relationships grew between one another. This was such an emotional, inspiring story full of compassion, honor and courage. This was an absolutely charming and enchanting book! A must read!
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  • emily
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good read!
    Reviewed in the United States on 21 May 2015
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    A deeply troubling and moving portrayal of one woman’s struggle for friendship and acceptance. Rachel, the lead character, is disabled, and some of the callous and heartless comments and challenges she faces are perhaps reflective of a society that doesn’t understand, and perhaps doesn’t want to. A real social commentary about the world we live in and how we could influence the direction we are all going in if a little more thought was given towards those that deserve it the most. The subject matter is handled deftly and with great heart by Ruth F Hunt. A real eye-opener for me.
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