A review by sarahvernall
Madensky Square by Eva Ibbotson

5.0

Chosen for my first reread of Ibbotson's adult romances because it's very distinct from the others. A more mature and self sufficient heroine, an epistolary journal style, and a gentle slow-paced slice-of-life narrative. The gentle familiarity that is established with the setting and the comings and goings of its inhabitants is beautiful; Madensky Square is almost a character in itself. Susanna Weber is a charismatic, sunny tour de force, if more worldly than Ibbotson's usual clutch of breathless life-enhancing ingenues (all of whom I also adore). The secondary characters uniformly sparkle; the Hungarian anarchist, the herpetology professor, the English Miss, the Bluestocking, the carpenter and his seven daughters, the tiny Polish piano prodigy. There are occasional problematic elements; see Susanna's disgust for Magdalena's wish for a sexless marriage. But overall, it remains an undiscovered beauty of a novel.