At the Back of the North Wind
Free public-domain edition — preview in your browser, no account required for the first chapter.
Preview free · sign up to save progress, download to your shelf, and sync with the apps
Already have an account? Sign in
This book offers a profound and poetic exploration of life, death, and faith through the eyes of a child, blending fairy tale wonder with deep spiritual insight.
Edition details
Book Summary
A young boy named Diamond befriends the enigmatic North Wind, who takes him on magical journeys that blur the line between dreams and reality. Through his adventures, Diamond learns profound lessons about faith, suffering, and the hidden goodness behind nature's destructive power, ultimately finding peace at the back of the North Wind.
Diamond, a gentle and innocent boy living in a stable loft, is visited by the North Wind, who appears as both a powerful force and a nurturing companion. She carries him through storms, teaches him courage in a cathedral, and leads him to the mysterious country at her back—a place of stillness and contentment. Meanwhile, Diamond's family faces financial hardship, and he selflessly helps others, including Nanny the crossing-sweeper and a suffering lady. He befriends the horse Ruby, who lames himself out of pride, and arranges for Nanny and her lame friend Jim to find a home in the country. As Diamond grows, his adventures with North Wind become rarer, and he eventually dies peacefully, having reached the back of the North Wind permanently. The story explores the duality of North Wind's nature—both destructive and kind—and suggests that true wisdom comes from innocence and trust in a higher purpose.
Reading guide
Go deeper in At the Back of the North Wind
Character guides, themes, chapter companions — plus Character Web, narrative arc, and theme heatmap teasers that unlock fully beside the text in BetterReads.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
Diamond
Diamond grows up poor but cherished, the son of a cabman, and earns his living driving fares about London while quietly believing that the odd things he sees are as real as the mud outside his door. When North Wind takes him to her back, he learns to fear nothing she can become, and the trust between them lets him meet the world with a patience that puzzles everyone around him. His unshakable gentleness is what draws the story forward, turning strangers into friends and small errands into quiet acts of rescue.
North Wind
North Wind moves through the world as weather and as woman, blowing through houses, dreams, and the affairs of men, and she answers to orders she never fully explains. She is tender with Diamond and terrible to those she must correct, and she will not stay where she is not wanted, which makes her both a comfort and a mystery to him. Her work in the early and middle chapters, from carrying Diamond to the country at her back to sinking the ship that ruins the Colemans, sets the moral weather of the whole book.
Nanny
Nanny is poor, unsentimental, and quick to call Diamond's head cracked, yet she tells him her dream of escaping the mud for a moonlit lawn with a frankness that matches his own. She insists her dreams are only dreams, while Diamond insists they are something more, and the argument between them is never quite settled. Her friendship gives Diamond a companion who sees the same world he does but refuses to believe in it, which sharpens the questions the story keeps asking about what is real.
Joseph
Joseph drives his cab through London weather and brings home what he can, and he takes quiet pride in his son and in the old horse also called Diamond. He is not a man of visions like his boy, but he is honest, steady, and slow to complain, and the family's fortunes rise and fall with the fares he can find. His labor and his decency give the story its grounding in ordinary life, and the losses that befall the household are felt through him as much as through anyone.
Mr. Raymond
Mr. Raymond moves easily among the comfortable classes, but he notices the small cabman's son and treats him with a courtesy that surprises everyone. He is generous without being showy, and his tale of Princess Daylight becomes one of the threads that ties Diamond's dream-life to the waking world. His friendship matters because it shows that the boy's strange gifts are recognized by people of standing as well as by the poor, and it gives the family a foothold when things grow hard.
Ruby
Ruby is sick and cross, and he does not want to be pitied or managed, which makes him a difficult companion for anyone who tries to be kind to him. Diamond's quiet persistence wears down his defenses, and the two boys form a bond that neither would have predicted. Ruby's frailty and his pride give the middle of the book a sharp, human counterweight to the wind and the dreams, and his fate is one of the things that teaches Diamond what sorrow looks like up close.
Innocence and Wisdom
The protagonist Diamond, a child of pure innocence, often speaks profound metaphysical truths and is called 'God's baby,' suggesting that true wisdom comes from a childlike, trusting heart rather than worldly knowledge.
Suffering and Redemption
Characters like Mr. Coleman and Mr. Evans experience financial ruin and personal loss, which serve as moral lessons that lead them toward honesty, humility, and redemption, illustrating that suffering can be a transformative force.
Duality of Nature
North Wind embodies both gentle kindness and destructive power, sinking ships while nurturing Diamond, prompting deep philosophical questions about how a single entity can be both cruel and loving.
Dreams and Reality
The narrative blurs the line between dreams and waking life, with Diamond's adventures with North Wind often occurring in dream states, suggesting that dreams can convey deeper truths and spiritual experiences.
Reading tools
BetterReads is more than a book page—e-reader, AI beside the text, audiobooks, and native apps in one system.