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“Engaging . . . A sprawling tome that combines fact with fiction and covers 900 years in the history of New Forest, a 100,000-acre woodland in southern England . . . sketches histories of 6 fictional families, ranging from aristocrats to peasants, who have lived in the forest for generations. . . . The real success is in how Rutherfurd paints his picture of the wooded enclave with images of treachery and violence, as well as magic and beauty.”