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A review by kchessrice
Eve Green by Susan Fletcher
5.0
"This is the place. I was certain. For the heart knows its home when it finds it, and on finding it, stays there."
Following the death of her mother, eight year old Eve Green returns to the land of her mother's birth to live with her grandparents in rural Wales. With a sense that she isn't being told the truth about her mother or why flowers are mysteriously appearing on their doorstep, Eve retreats into the landscape and strikes up a friendship with fellow outcast, Billy. With the sudden disappearance of a teenage girl from the village, Eve learns the power of telling the truth and how lies and secrets do the most damage.
Told in flashback from an Eve now in her late-twenties, we are taken through that period of a young girl's life where she stops being a child and learns that the world is a complex and often strange place. The writing in this novel is absolutely beautiful; the Welsh landscape is conjured up so vividly in Fletcher's almost poetic prose. I loved the voice of Eve and that she never shied away from being completely herself, no matter what trouble it landed her in. The mother's death is never really discussed so even by the end it's not clear whether she died on purpose or as a tragic twist of fortune (although I personally think it was a cry for help, rather than an intended suicide, but that's just my interpretation of it). Eve tries to remain close to her mother by looking through the scraps of journal that her mother had kept and some keepsakes, trying also to piece together enough information to find out who her father is (who she has never met and her mother pines over).
I still find myself thinking back to this story and the characters in it now, even though I read it back in September (behind in my reviews or what?!). This is a coming of age story and a story about families and friendships. It's about the natural landscape, which can be a place of beauty and terror. My book club and I absolutely loved this book and it is a real highlight in my books of 2020.
Following the death of her mother, eight year old Eve Green returns to the land of her mother's birth to live with her grandparents in rural Wales. With a sense that she isn't being told the truth about her mother or why flowers are mysteriously appearing on their doorstep, Eve retreats into the landscape and strikes up a friendship with fellow outcast, Billy. With the sudden disappearance of a teenage girl from the village, Eve learns the power of telling the truth and how lies and secrets do the most damage.
Told in flashback from an Eve now in her late-twenties, we are taken through that period of a young girl's life where she stops being a child and learns that the world is a complex and often strange place. The writing in this novel is absolutely beautiful; the Welsh landscape is conjured up so vividly in Fletcher's almost poetic prose. I loved the voice of Eve and that she never shied away from being completely herself, no matter what trouble it landed her in. The mother's death is never really discussed so even by the end it's not clear whether she died on purpose or as a tragic twist of fortune (although I personally think it was a cry for help, rather than an intended suicide, but that's just my interpretation of it). Eve tries to remain close to her mother by looking through the scraps of journal that her mother had kept and some keepsakes, trying also to piece together enough information to find out who her father is (who she has never met and her mother pines over).
I still find myself thinking back to this story and the characters in it now, even though I read it back in September (behind in my reviews or what?!). This is a coming of age story and a story about families and friendships. It's about the natural landscape, which can be a place of beauty and terror. My book club and I absolutely loved this book and it is a real highlight in my books of 2020.