A review by jaironside
As If I Were A River by Amanda Saint

4.0

This was a different book than I would normally go for but that did not stop it being enjoyable, thought provoking and beautifully written. I saw a little of this in it's very early stages and was thrilled when I heard the author had got a publishing contract as I would get to read the rest. Love and loss are strong themes in this novel, and underpinning it all is the sense of interconnectedness we find in novels such as Isabel Allende's House of Spirits- our lives are not our own but spiral and twist and part, interconnecting and affecting each other. I agree with another reviewer that there were aspects of second and third tier characters I wanted to know more about but as a novel that was at least partially about secrets and ho they can both poison you and set you free, it made sense that some back stories were kept in the shade. This was a wonderful debut - one I expect I will get more from on a reread.