'At the Back of the North Wind' Summary

The book tells the story of a young boy named Diamond. He is a very sweet little boy who makes joy everywhere he goes. He fights despair and gloom and brings peace to his family. One night, as he is trying to sleep, Diamond repeatedly plugs up a hole in the loft (also his bedroom) wall to stop the wind from blowing in. However, he soon finds out that this is stopping the North Wind from seeing through her window. Diamond befriends her, and North Wind lets him fly with her, taking him on several adventures. Though the North Wind does good deeds and helps people, she also does seemingly terrible things. On one of her assignments, she must sink a ship. Yet everything she does that seems bad leads to something good. The North Wind seems to be a representation of Pain and Death working according to God's will for something good.

The book is said to have inspired writers like CS Lewis. The author, George Macdonald was a literary luminary of his day. Friend of the great artists, writers and philosophers of the day like John Ruskin, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Antony Trollope, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and a host of others, he was an ordained minister of the Church besides being a gifted poet and writer. His body of work includes novels, fantasy stories, children's stories, poetry, non-fiction and religious treatises. He was also a staunch advocate of criminal reform and opposed punishment in any form, believing that love could conquer everything.

At the Back of the North Wind has been seen by many scholars as an allegorical tale. But for young readers, it is simply an exciting fantasy story.