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emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This one is giving me Booker vibes. I feel like this one has many things in common with Stone Yard Devotional, which is equally exceptional. Both books feature a woman reflecting on her past and particularly on moments where they didn’t act.
There is teenage Edith who is sent to Italy to stay with her older sister who is living in exile from their parents and town and who is hiding the fact that she is pregnant. Edith is curious and yet she is very uneasy in this environment. She tries her best. This Edith is in the first person narrative.
Then there is older Edith, grappling with aging, friendship and what it means to tell or withhold the truth. This Edith contemplates issues like migration, marriage and divorce and displacement and belonging. She is unfailingly honest and doesn’t care if you like her or not. This Edith is in the third person narrative.
The writing is quite lyrical, atmospheric and full of passages worthy of highlighting. The use of two narratives to reflect the differences in the two timelines as Edith matures is very clever.
This review is kind of vague, but I don’t want to spoil too much. I just feel that this story has so much meaning and is the type of book that deserves more than one reading to grasp all the nuance.
Suffice it to say, this one is a winner for me.