The mountain has eyes. Walking the Postmans Track, Rocky Cape National Park, Tasmania. January 2021. Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles Paulette Jiles works magic with her writing. Much like the marvellous News of the World , the story within Simon the Fiddler flows like molasses from a spoon. Despite moments of violence and hardship, and its Civil War setting, this is a surprisingly gentle book. Given the centrality of music – we follow Simon and his companion musicians through Texas at the tail end of the war and immediate years of the Reconstruction – the text's lyrical beauty is unsurprising. While Simon himself is hot-tempered and ill-suited to company, he is no misanthrope, and I found myself warming to him as the story progressed. Much as life, the journey is a meandering and unpredictable one. Trials and tribulations abound, love is sighted and perused, sadness and grief felt, and the converted goal of just being left alone to play music and carve ...