June 23, 2024
All the Broken Places by John Boyne.
Fiction but the supposed life of the sister of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas who had to carry the legacy of her father’s terrible role in the Holocaust and her brother’s tragic death through her long life. Gripping, thought-provoking and well written.
Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby has lived in the same well-to-do mansion block in London for decades. She lives a quiet, comfortable life, despite her deeply disturbing, dark past. She doesn’t talk about her escape from Nazi Germany at age 12. She doesn’t talk about the grim post-war years in France with her mother. Most of all, she doesn’t talk about her father, who was the commandant of one of the Reich’s most notorious extermination camps. A devastating, beautiful story about a woman who must confront the sins of her own terrible past, and a present in which it is never too late for bravery.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo.
I didn’t expect to love this, but I did. I liked the vibrant portrayals of the different women, full of energy and sometimes laugh out loud. I liked the fluidity of the writing because of the lack of full stops. I was fascinated by the different stories of the women whose lives were so varied yet whom all suffered the feelings of otherness.
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years. A novel of our times.
Mosquito by Roma Tearne.
A love story set against the violent backdrop of the civil war in Sri Lanka. Wonderfully descriptive writing and a tender love story between an elder widower and a younger Sri Lankan girl.
On the lush coast of Sri Lanka, a talented and beautiful young woman, Nulani, returns day after day to the verandah of a beach house to paint. Her subject is Theo, a writer attempting to heal from a tragic loss and struggling to complete a faltering novel. Just as love blossoms between them, the country is shaken by civil war. Through the years that follow, Nulani and Theo must depend upon their memories and the art that once brought them together to find the strength to face their much changed lives.
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell.
The story of a woman wrongly put into a mental institution 60 years ago. Her great niece only learns of her existence when she is asked to take her in when the institution closes down. The unravelling of Esme’s story makes for a fascinating read.
Maggie O’Farrell takes readers on a journey to the darker places of the human heart, where desires struggle with the imposition of social mores. This haunting story explores the seedy past of Victorian asylums, the oppression of family secrets, and the way truth can change everything. It’s an intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth will haunt readers long past its final page.
A Fortunate Woman (A Country Doctor’s Story) by Polly Morland.
Non-fiction at its best. The author discovers an old book in her mother’s house which leads her to a country doctor living in her own vicinity who is the backbone of their community . This is the story of her life and the lives of her patients. Well written and fascinating.
A Fortunate Woman sheds light on what it means to be a doctor in today’s complex and challenging world. Interweaving the doctor’s story with those of her patients, reflecting on the relationship between landscape and community, and upon the wider role of medicine in society, a unique portrait of a twenty-first century family doctor emerges.
I’ve read The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox which I much enjoyed and if you’ve read any of these selections, please share your thoughts.
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