Set in South Africa over three decades, this is the story of a family in decline. When their mother dies, three siblings return home, a place of complicated feelings and relationships. Their mother extracted a promise from their father to give a house to their black housekeeper, and this unkept promise plagues the family for many years. This was a slow burn for me; a dark, bleak, character study and reflection on the complicated changes in South Africa.
After her grandmother’s funeral Flo discovers a box that contains vintage sewing patterns, fabric swatches and postcards from 1962 . They belonged to a relative Nancy Moon who she has not heard of before. As her marriage is also breaking down Flo decides to recreate the outfits of Nancy Moon and recreate the 1962 journey of Nancy. The story is told through the voices of both Flo and Nancy, anchored by the outfit they both wore. Family secrets are revealed, relationships are healed and it made me nostalgic about sewing with my mother.
This was such a heartwarming read. It is told through the alternating voices of Eloise and her daughter Valentina. Eloise had to leave Valentina when she was a child and it is only after Eloise’s death that Valentina can discover what happens. We are taken through Valentina’s healing journey as she takes over her mother’s bookshop in London. The love of community, friends and books shone through the story.
We are introduced to a serial killer and then to Sarah and her daughter Marni. What is the connection between them? Who is the serial killer and what is in Sarah’s past that she has hidden from her daughter? I did find this a bit of a struggle to read as I found the writing chunky, the sentences a bit abbreviated. I enjoyed the way the story unraveled, bringing it all together at the end.
Three Sisters is based on the true story of Jewish, Slovakian sisters whose love for each other sustained them through WWII and into their new lives in Israel. Consciously uplifting, and simply told, it celebrates the strength, bravery, and determination of the sisters to survive the horrors of the concentration camps, and leave the anti-Semitism of their birth country behind them to make something of their lives in the newly formed Israel. The story of these women is interesting and worth sharing, but the writing style is not at all to my taste; full of platitudes, inauthentic dialogue, too much detail about what we have read many times before, and not enough about less well-covered ground.
1888, the time when women could be committed to an institution for any reason, including being inconvenient or embarassing to the family, is the focus of this historical novel. Charlotte finds a way to have herself committed to Goldengrove Asylum to rescue her sister who was committed by their father. Once inside she discovers that the imates and conditions are not the same as the glossy brochure. I found the descriptions of Goldengrove and the treatments offered there interesting (and terrifying). How would Charlotte and her sister escape?
To Paradise is three books in one, speculative, and vaguely linked. The first section is set in an alternate 1890s, the next in the 1990s, and the final section, the longest, in the 2090s, all in New York City and in parts, Hawai’i. Each tells a different story, though the characters have the same names, but they all deal with family, possibility, choices, long-term consequences, illness, the nature of love, how people who are different might be loved, and the longing for paradise common to all. Not as emotionally devastating as A Little Life, it is still moving, clever, thought-provoking, evocative, lyrical, and magnificent. A time commitment, to be sure, for lovers of questions rather than answers.
A good family saga, where the pain of the past reverberates through future generations. At the heart of the story is Irish cousins Sean and Brandon who have escaped their troubles in Ireland to try to make their mark in Australia. But the dreams and hopes they have are not fulfilled the way they expect.
A truly beautiful, tiny book reflecting on Adichie’s father and her grief at his loss during 2020. As one of my fathers died just before the pandemic, and the other in March 2020, I related to the strangeness of loss at this time, and from a distance. Deep thinking, raw emotion, lyrical writing; a worthwhile book to read at any life stage.
Mina works in advertising in London, having left behind a mother who won’t leave the house in Melbourne. When she hears that her mother has been seen out of the house, she drops everything and rushes home. An introspective novel with a leisurely pace, Kokomo is about complicated families, love, longing, misogyny , sex, and modern life for women. A little bit Sally Rooney, I didn’t really connect with the motivations and emotions of the main characters, but found it to be a thought-provoking story with a great sense of place.
rrlreads 