A review by andrew61
The Rain Before It Falls by Jonathan Coe

4.0

This was an intriguing read which touches on memory, mother/daughter relationships, and the power of photo's. An old lady Rosamund dies leaving a series of cassette tapes addressed to Imogen one of her beneficiaries, a niece who is blind but cannot be traced. Her other niece Gill who is dealling with her affairs listens with her adult daughters to the tapes. The tapes are Rosamunds descriptions of family photos over a 50 year period which explain about Imogen's mother, grandmother and great grandmother. I won't say any more but it had me gripped to the very end and similar to the Poliakoff film a few years back it really plays on the power of images in old black and white and colour snaps brilliantly creating a great sense of time place and drama.