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A review by katheastman
The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin
5.0
Switching between 1819 and the heatwave summer of 1976, The Mathematics of Love is a beautifully-written novel, telling the stories of Stephen Fairhurst and teenager Anna Ware respectively. The novel is chiefly set in Suffolk and the home of Stephen Fairhurst (which is where Anna has been sent to spend her summer with an uncle in 1976), but some time is also spent in Belgium and Spain when Stephen travels there.
It gets off to a dramatic start with the Peterloo Massacre and I was quickly drawn in by the wonderful writing, the fully-realised characters and their story, or stories. I especially liked how letters were used to reveal Stephen Fairhurst's thoughts and feelings. The writing is incredibly good, so nuanced and richly descriptive that I happily sunk into it, like settling in among a mass of cushions, every time I opened the book. It's an ambitious and fully-realised novel which is deeply satisfying to read.
It gets off to a dramatic start with the Peterloo Massacre and I was quickly drawn in by the wonderful writing, the fully-realised characters and their story, or stories. I especially liked how letters were used to reveal Stephen Fairhurst's thoughts and feelings. The writing is incredibly good, so nuanced and richly descriptive that I happily sunk into it, like settling in among a mass of cushions, every time I opened the book. It's an ambitious and fully-realised novel which is deeply satisfying to read.