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librarianinthewoods 's review for:
The Discomfort of Evening
by Lucas Rijneveld
This book is one of the most devastating books I’ve ever read. And also one of the strongest endings. I really don’t know how to rate it.
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, winner of the 2020 International Booker Prize, is the story about a strict religious family living on a farm in the Netherlands grieving over the loss of the oldest child told through the perspective of his 10 year old sister.
I’m not adverse to reading sad books but this was grim, uncomfortable, and the last third of the book I was held captive with mixed horror and needing to know how the book would end. I forced myself to finish the second half yesterday because I had been reading it so slowly and needed to be finished.
⠀
The thing is the writing and imagery is so strong. And like To Kill a Mockingbird, the book deals with adult themes from a child’s point of view. But I don’t think I could recommend this to anyone unless they wanted a truly dark, heartbreaking read. Not a read for 2020.
I don’t list content warnings, but this book contains animal cruelty, sexual abuse, unrelenting grief, suicide, etc.
Some strong passages:
“No one in the village liked to dwell: the crops might wither, and we only knew about the harvest that came from the land, not about things that grew inside ourselves.”
“Sadness ends up in your spine. Mum’s back is getting more and more bent.”
On her dad: “He’d threaten he’d leave for good. Lots of people want to run away, but the ones who really do rarely announce it beforehand: they just go.”
“I’m lucky Mum never empties my pockets, otherwise she’d find out about all the things I want to hang on to, the things I’m collecting to become heavier.”
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, winner of the 2020 International Booker Prize, is the story about a strict religious family living on a farm in the Netherlands grieving over the loss of the oldest child told through the perspective of his 10 year old sister.
I’m not adverse to reading sad books but this was grim, uncomfortable, and the last third of the book I was held captive with mixed horror and needing to know how the book would end. I forced myself to finish the second half yesterday because I had been reading it so slowly and needed to be finished.
⠀
The thing is the writing and imagery is so strong. And like To Kill a Mockingbird, the book deals with adult themes from a child’s point of view. But I don’t think I could recommend this to anyone unless they wanted a truly dark, heartbreaking read. Not a read for 2020.
I don’t list content warnings, but this book contains animal cruelty, sexual abuse, unrelenting grief, suicide, etc.
Some strong passages:
“No one in the village liked to dwell: the crops might wither, and we only knew about the harvest that came from the land, not about things that grew inside ourselves.”
“Sadness ends up in your spine. Mum’s back is getting more and more bent.”
On her dad: “He’d threaten he’d leave for good. Lots of people want to run away, but the ones who really do rarely announce it beforehand: they just go.”
“I’m lucky Mum never empties my pockets, otherwise she’d find out about all the things I want to hang on to, the things I’m collecting to become heavier.”