News of our loved ones, by Abigail DeWitt

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Abigail DeWitt

In this novel we follow the history of a French family in a little village throughout several decades and places. Beginning in 1944, a sixteen-year-old girl is secretly in love with a boy who passes by their house riding his bicycle every day at the same hour and, thanks to her daydreaming about her love for him, the Nazi occupation of the village and the sirens wailing each night disappear from her mind. But in the end the place is bombed by the allies, and the family members will be separated at this particular moment in which lives and dreams are lost forever.

Every chapter is told from the point of view of one character in a certain stage of the family history, and sometimes we come back to this French village in the forties, but other times we find ourselves various decades later in Paris, and it is as if each chapter is an independent short story by itself because the characters won’t star in more than one although, at the end, you feel a cycle coming to an end with the whole history of every family member since that day in 1944.

This way of storytelling has been the most remarkable peculiarity of the book; I was hooked to these little portions of the family history through the eyes of different characters, like the pieces of a puzzle, wondering about this or that one, often recreating past events of one of the sisters through a thought or a conversation decades later into the chapter of another family member.

It could have been an average novel of the Nazi occupation, but the narration makes the story of this family unique, and those glimpses into this sister’s, the aunt’s or that child’s life go further into filling the atmosphere of the family and the time than a linear narration would.

Thanks to Harper books for the galley.

 

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The visitors, by Patrick O’Keeffe

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Patrick O'Keeffe

I requested this book a while ago on Netgalley attracted by the promising family secrets that the story seemed to contain between its pages; these novels in which the narration goes back into the past to uncover tragic events that still affect the characters in the present day are the ones I most enjoy, but I guess there is always a exception to the rule, and The visitors is that said exception.

The main character is Jimmy, an Irish young man who now lives in the United States, having left the village where he was born and, not being the type who phones, writes or visits family and friends often enough, is surprised when a man pops in to tell him that one friend from the past wants to see him again. This so-called-friend is the son of Jimmy’s father’s best friend, and a bunch of memories, news from home and calls to his siblings help to unfold the story of the two families from the Irish farms to the modern America.

I could have really enjoyed the story, but I had a hard time getting into it, and I even considered not to finish the book when I was reading the first chapters. Jimmy has been a boring leading character: for the whole story he is basically doing nothing while his siblings and friends suddenly began to open their hearts and reveal family secrets he didn’t know of, which is really surprising taking into account that he is a lonely man who refuses to talk much to his relatives, less to have deep conversations.

Getting into the style, the narration lacks smooth transitions between the present day and Jimmy’s memories of the past, and all the dialogues sounded artificial: there were an excessive repetition of words – Jimmy and a female friend said “my dear” after every one of their sentences – or names – the name of the person they were talking to was also repeated in every sentence – and it made reading the conversations annoying, to say the least.

Regarding the plot, it was quite disappointing as well; basically, in Jimmy’s father’s generation a man and a woman fall in love but they marry other people and keep thinking about each other forever, and in Jimmy’s generation the same happened twice. Full stop. The events that the author includes surrounding these romances don’t really add depth to the story, neither do they change anything in the state of Jimmy’s affairs; they just make the book longer, which it is not considered a positive feature so far…

So, as you should know by now, I can’t recommend it. This was one of those books I force myself into finishing just because I have requested them, and all I wanted was to read it as soon as possible in order to start a more pleasant read.

And after the fire, by Lauren Belfer

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Lauren Belfer

I received this book from the publisher for review.

“And after the fire” tells the story of a lost cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, stolen from a house in Germany after World War II and now in the hands of a young woman, Susanna, who, in order to find if the manuscript has any value, asks music scholar Dan Erhardt for help. Not only does Dan confirm that the manuscript has Bach’s own handwriting on it, which could lead to an astonishing breakthrough, but he also notices the extremely controversial verses accompanying the music – anti-Semitic verses written in German to perform in church services, no less.

Alternating chapters, the story of such manuscript is revealed from the moment Bach’s eldest son gives it to his most talented music student, a Jew young woman called Sara Itzig, in the belief that she will comprehend its value and keep it from anti-Semitic Christian hands, who are gaining power in Prussia in the late eighteenth century. This – the decay of the Jewish prominence in the European elite – is the main topic of this half of the book, in which Sara’s family endure, devoting themselves to music.

The historical part of the story, based on real characters of the past, was as interesting as the main plot set in the present, where Susanna and Dan try to discover the whereabouts of a cantata that has been hidden for so many years, and the implications of revealing its existence to the public – music and verses written by the master which claim the convenience of burning the Jews don’t seem very appropriate, right? Besides, these contemporary characters are interesting by themselves; their backgrounds make the reader feel sympathy for them.

There are minor parts of the book I didn’t found that good, like the kind-of love triangle that includes Susanna, Dan and a friend of his, unnecessary in this story, but there is one scene that I particularly disliked and I need to tell you: Susanna and Dan travel to Germany and, at the hotel, people stare at her in disgust because she is a Jew and they end up making a scene there. In 2010! I’m not talking about the fact that they are in a hotel and the other guests might not even be Germans, but I find it utterly implausible the author’s affirmation that Germans nowadays are anti-Semitic and are keen to show this in public, not to mention the fact that I don’t really think people can tell someone is a Jew just by their appearance. That said, I have never been in Germany myself.

So I’ll pretend I haven’t read such a scene because, overall, this was a good book; I enjoyed reading about real musicians of the past, as well as wondering if we’ll ever find out about the mysteries that have been kept secret.

And after the fire
Lauren Belfer
Published by Harper
464 pages

The picture book (The undertow), by Jo Baker

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Jo Baker

I was really excited about this book due to my love for family sagas, but it didn’t turn out as I expected.

The story follows the family history of the Hastings since the Great War, when Will joins the army and leaves Amelia pregnant and living with her in-laws. They have a correspondence during the war and Will sends postcards of the places where he is stationed, postcards that will be kept in an album for the generations of Hastings to discover.

All the descendents of the generations to come are, somehow, miserable: Amelia will have a hard time raising her child alone, and her son, Will, is going to be a great athlete, but never to the point of winning important competitions due to his poor upbringing. Will’s son (also called Will) is born with a physical disability, which is more shameful taking into account his father’s love for physical activities; the boy is good at studying and will become a professor in Oxford, but he will never get rid of the feeling that he isn’t good enough. And finally my favourite part: set in the present age and about Billie, a young woman who doesn’t know if she should continue pursuing her dream of becoming a painter.

My copy of the book

The album appears in the story here and there, but it’s not the guide along the narration. We get to know certain scenes of the life of the Hastings, and I felt like some parts needed further development: in one chapter a scene is described in detail and, in the next, several years have passed and we are talking about different things (or people!), so I would like to have explanations in between in order to truly understand the characters.

In summary, I liked the book – the story of several generations of a British family, their differences and the weight they carry from the past – but I couldn’t help feeling something important was missing.

The picture book
Jo Baker
450 pages, Portobello Books (British edition)
Read My Own Damn Books: 7th book

The storyteller, by Jodi Picoult

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Jodi Picoult

What a thought-provoking book! It’s about evil, goodness, and the fact that the two of them can converge into the same person.

Sage Singer is a solitary girl who works at night in a bakery, hidden from the world by her own choice because she thinks she is not worthy of love, friendship, or being happy. One day, she makes friends with Josef, a respected old man from the community where she lives and, shockingly, he confesses to her that he was an SS Nazi guard at Auschwitz and asks her to help him die.

Of course, Sage’s first reaction (after denial, that is, because such a confession seemed more likely to be a made up story by an old man) is disgust for all the crimes committed by Josef in the past, but then again, that was long time ago, and the man he is now is completely different: a nice teacher who has been helping others for years. Might the new Josef redeem the old one? Who is to judge?

Intertwined in this story, there is also Minka’s; she is Sage’s grandmother and a Holocaust survivor who has kept the horror she lived to herself, becoming a new person with a new life once she moved to America. But now Sage needs to know, and Minka finally releases her story, in which Josef plays also a part. Therefore, if the reader was feeling pity for a ninety-year-old man who took part in the world’s worst crimes but voluntarily decided to become a new person, now is willing to change her mind after knowing Minka’s story in Auschwitz.

As far as I know, Picoult’s books are always this controversial. The characters play the two points of view of the story, both of them explained in detail for the reader to sympathize and one has to decide for herself, which is not an easy task. And then again, we are not the ones to judge, but we can’t avoid judging either.

So, if you are looking for a book (or an author, for that matter) to challenge your values and morality, this is a great option. Besides, I never get tired of stories set in World War II, and this particular one is well written: raw and bitter when necessary, but well balanced with kindness and humour thanks to secondary characters in both storylines.

PS: This book was not on my list for the Read my own damn books Challenge, but I have other four books by this author waiting on my shelves 😉

The storyteller
Jodi Picoult
Atria Books, 460 pages
Book on Goodreads

Life after life, by Kate Atkinson

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Kate Atkinson

Ursula Todd comes in a bar full of German soldiers, kills Hitler, and immediately the others shot her dead. Then she is born but dies at childbirth, so she is born again and makes it until she is a little girl… only to be born again, the same winter day, into the same family, overcoming previous accidents and difficulties that she experienced before.

This could seem a repetitive story, taking into account that Ursula lives many lives, but it’s far from it. In every life the author focuses our attention on a certain aspect of Ursula’s friends and relatives, on how much your life can change in just a second or the chances you have to make a different outcome… But that outcome, is it better or worse? How can we know?

The synopsis of the book asks What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? And that’s the question the book brings up – what is right? We all agree that right might be not dying from illnesses, accidents or violence, but once you are a healthy human being who lives in a safe environment, there are a number of things that bring you joy and happiness, and some necessarily imply that you can’t have the others.

Life after life is not only a thought-provoking book, but also a historical fiction story since most of it is set on World War II, during the London Blitz and, thanks to Ursula’s many lives, we get many different points of view of that period.

However, and this is funny, the end is open to interpretation, and I think the book is prone to, at least, one re-read, thanks to the clues that some of the characters leave throughout the story. I spent some time reading other readers’ questions and comments on GoodReads, because it really leaves you in need of answers. It’s a great story.

Life after life
Kate Atkinson
Black Swan
Paperback, 620 pages
Read my own damn books: 1st

September, by Rosamunde Pilcher

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Rosamunde Pilcher

I wish I could live in one of Pilcher’s books…

It’s late 1980s and, after many years from the last party, a wealthy family is organizing one to celebrate their daughter’s eighteenth birthday, and it will take place in September. The mood of the Strathcroy inhabitants, in Scotland, instantly lightens up, because they long for the old days and the party is the perfect excuse to bring up old memories… and old people too!

The party is the premise Pilcher uses to introduce a number of characters whose life is beginning to fall apart, as the old Scottish traditions do. There is a little boy, Henry, whose father wants him to go to a boarding school; the mother of this boy, who can’t stand the idea of the separation; an old woman, Edie, who has to take care of a cousin with a mental illness; a young girl who is living her first romance, or Pandora, a woman who left the village when she was a teenager and has never come back…

My copy of the book.

All the characters have to fight over their own wellbeing, that kind of happiness that sometimes is so elusive. The narration addresses one character in every chapter, letting the reader take part of their lives, their struggles; there are no bad or good people here, just the pursuit of their place in the world. And no less important is the setting, in a village of the Highlands, a magical place where all those character come together to form a special unit which wouldn’t be the same without the bonds between them, together to face the twilight of the way of life they had known.

September is another little gem of Rosamunde Pilcher, an invitation to a party in Scotland you shouldn’t decline. I will be waiting for you there, in the Highlands. In September 😉

Duet for three hands, by Tess Thompson

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Tess Thompson

It’s late 1920s when Nathaniel, a virtuoso pianist with limited social skills, is delighting his audience, not knowing that some hours later his life would change drastically: in the after-party he would meet his future wife, Frances Bellmont, and his career as one of the best piano concertists would fade away.

The other part of the story is set at the Bellmonts’. Whitmore Bellmont, Frances’ little brother, is a talented boy on the art of drawing who is in love with the maid’s daughter, Jesselle, a black young girl who has been taught by Mrs. Clare Bellmont all the school subjects she couldn’t have learned otherwise because of the color of her skin. The relationship between Whitmore and Jesselle must be kept secret, as well as the lessons Mrs. Bellmont schedule every day for Jesselle, because the society of their time would raise Cain if they knew.

Finally, there is a young widow called Lydia, who eventually would know the rest of the characters, when she decides to leave the farm she has always lived in, in order to master the piano.

Tess Thompson, one of my favourite romance authors, has surprised us, her fans, by writing a historical fiction novel this time based on the life of her great-grandmother, which has been a pleasure to read.

From several points of view, the story shows a portrait of that time, regarding human rights, education, arts, and the beginning of the movie industry, with a wealthy southern family in the center. Every one of the characters has a unique voice and, even when each one has their own conflicts to solve, all of them converge throughout the narration, interconnected in the overall story.

However, my favourite has been Nathaniel; I felt really sorry for him when he had to stop playing music and give up his fascinating career as a concertist only to be stuck in a marriage where love was absent. I also enjoyed Jesselle’s story; a girl divided between two worlds, fighting for growing up and make her dreams come true, with her only two weapons against the world: her love for Whitmore and her will to learn.

With the issues it addresses and the charming characters the novel has, I think most readers will be captivated by Duet for three hands as much as I was.

Duet for Three Hands, by Tess Thopmson
Published by Booktrope, 384 pages

Book on Amazon.com
Book on Goodreads
Tess Thompson’s web

Her sister’s shoes, by Ashley Farley

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Ashley Farley

I received this book in order to participate in a book tour
organized by iRead Book Tours.

Her sister’s shoes is a family saga about three sisters whose lives are far from perfect. Jackie, the oldest, is a cold and selfish woman whose marriage is about to end abruptly, but she is only concerned about keeping up appearances. The second sister, Samantha, is struggling with her teenage son, Jamie, who had a terrible car accident some months ago and he is not only in a wheelchair, but with a terrible depression that Sam doesn’t know how to cope with. Finally Faith, the youngest sister, lives in fear of her husband, who is becoming abusive towards her and their little daughter.

Sam, Faith and their mother, Lovie, are just reopening a seafood market the family have owned for years, and it feels like it should be changing their lives for the better, but this doesn’t happen – the sisters will have to learn how to rely on each other in order to overcome their problems.

This is a charming story about love and trust in your family members, who are the ones who will always be there to support you. I liked the main characters, especially Samantha, who has to do all the hard work, putting the others together and making them open their eyes, but she is actually not as strong as she looks in the outside. The secondary characters are also lovely, and I really felt so sorry for Faith’s daughter, and also for Jamie, who manages to avoid focusing on his own suffering when he learns that his little cousin needs his help.

I have to say that the story was very predictable in the end, but I suppose this predictability comes with the genre itself, so I would have been really shocked if the end was different! In any case, I think happy endings are what you are looking for in these kinds of books, right?

And finally, I would like to comment briefly about the setting: the story takes place in a small town in the coast of South Carolina, being it so idyllic that you can’t believe people might not be absolutely happy in such a place. I also felt that the story needs a prequel to talk about how Lovie and her husband ended up there and made their living by fishing and selling the food in the street at the beginning, and then building their own market. I think it makes for a lovely story too.

To summarize, I think Her sister’s shoes will please women’s fiction readers who want a joyful and engaging summer read with lovable characters.

Her sister’s Shoes
Asley Farley
380 pages
Published by Leisure time books

Author’s website
Book on Amazon.com
Book on Goodreads

The weight of blood, by Laura McHugh

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Laura McHugh

This is the book I picked up for Dewey’s readathon a week ago and, as you should know by now, I was unable to read in a single day, because yes, I’m slow. It has nothing to do with the book, though – it had me hooked on from the very beginning and I had a great time reading it. The story is set in the typical small village (in Arkansas) where everybody knows each other, when something unusual happens: Cheri, a girl from the village, is found dead and cut into pieces after being missing for almost a year. Lucy, the main character, was friends with her, and she is sure Cheri didn’t leave on her own – the girl was a little retarded and wasn’t the kind of girl who takes such a decision – so she tries to find out what’s going on around Cheri’s murder.

Lucy’s mother, Lila, disappeared when she was a baby and the girl craves for every bit of information about her mother that the other people in the village tells her when they talk, and somehow Cheri and her mother’s disappearances seem to be related to her. What Lucy doesn’t know is that the track of the murderer might lead to her own family.

The first part of the story has chapters from Lucy and Lila’s perspective, so you get to know little by little how Lila came to the village and fell in love with Lucy’s father, but it is not the happy ending – or the happy beginning, most accurately – she had been told over the years. Lila kept secrets that some of her neighbours know, and Lucy has to be smart enough to find them. In the second and third part of the books, we have chapters from other characters’ points of view, which help us to fill up the gaps.

You know I’m a fan of family mysteries, and this book was just my cup of tea. I enjoyed the way the author introduces the different characters, a glimpse when they were young in Lila’s chapters; another at what they have become now at Lucy’s time. Meanwhile the reader tries to recompose all the information about every of them. I really loved Lucy’s father, who was so sweet with Lila from the beginning, when she arrived to town and everybody else looked at her like she was an alien, just because she was an outsider.

Summarizing, I think The weight of blood is a good mystery novel, well narrated through different characters’ perspective, which keeps you hooked on Lucy’s investigations about the secrets buried in this village. I received this book from Netgalley.

The Weight of Blood

Laura McHugh

Random House

302 pages

 

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