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A review by kate66
The Island of Longing by Anne Griffin
5.0
What an utterly beautiful, totally heartbreaking story.
One day, after a minor row, Saoirse Driscoll, goes missing. We join the story some eight years later as Saoirse's mother, Rosie, has returned to her birth place to help her father run the ferry between Roaring Bay Island and the mainland. Rosie has come home after a breakdown both mental and marital. She has come to find some peace while she wants for Saoirse to come back to her family.
There are several threads to the story that includes brief looks at Saoirse's view of the day she went missing. Rosie not only has to contend with trying to convince everyone her daughter is still alive but also the recent death of her mother, keeping her ailing father and his job as captain of the ferry going all while trying to give herself some peace of mind.
The characters Anne Griffin gives us are all expertly drawn. They have real life to them. We feel everything Rosie feels from despair and confusion to hope and an unwillingness to lie down and give up.
This is my first Anne Griffin. It most certainly won't be my last. The book itself is easy reading but not easy subject matter. I had to constantly slow my reading down because it is such a shame to rush through such a beautiful book.
Highly recommended.
One day, after a minor row, Saoirse Driscoll, goes missing. We join the story some eight years later as Saoirse's mother, Rosie, has returned to her birth place to help her father run the ferry between Roaring Bay Island and the mainland. Rosie has come home after a breakdown both mental and marital. She has come to find some peace while she wants for Saoirse to come back to her family.
There are several threads to the story that includes brief looks at Saoirse's view of the day she went missing. Rosie not only has to contend with trying to convince everyone her daughter is still alive but also the recent death of her mother, keeping her ailing father and his job as captain of the ferry going all while trying to give herself some peace of mind.
The characters Anne Griffin gives us are all expertly drawn. They have real life to them. We feel everything Rosie feels from despair and confusion to hope and an unwillingness to lie down and give up.
This is my first Anne Griffin. It most certainly won't be my last. The book itself is easy reading but not easy subject matter. I had to constantly slow my reading down because it is such a shame to rush through such a beautiful book.
Highly recommended.