Clara has not seen or heard from her son, Max, for almost twenty years. She has no idea where he is and feels the time has come to try and find him.. Clara has not seen or heard from her son, Max, for almost twenty years. She has no idea where he is and feels the time has come to try and find him.. After some sleuthing, she discovers that he is living in LA, has a wife and a seventeen year old daughter. Clara writes to Nathalie in the hope that her granddaughter would like to connect.
Eva is still bitter about her brothers disappearance and has her own painful memories to deal with. Still single, she finds her habit of picking up strange men in bars becoming a cliché, and vows to change her ways. When she hears of her niece's existence, she finds herself looking towards the past rather than the future.
Nathalie is a typical All-American teenager. Finishing high school, dreaming of her future and getting ready for college. All that changes on Prom night, when her whole world changes in an instant. A trip to Ireland to visit an unknown grandmother seems like the best option for a damaged teen, and soon Nathalie finds the home comforts of the Irish countryside the best medicine.
When she discovers box of old letters in her grandmothers house, the family history becomes a bigger part of her life than Nathalie ever expected. Going back as far as WWII and the Nazi camps, the story of her great-grandmother is poignant and inspirational at the same time. But can the inherited history bring the damaged family back together again?
Emma Hannigan has a way with words. She embraces the characters wholly and gives them each an individual personality. Clara, an Austrian grandmother, or Oma, is a woman we would all like to come home to; gentle yet firm, honest yet kind and well able to warm anyone's heart with her home baking and crafty talents. She has a lifetime of memories and is more than willing to share them, at her late stage in life. She misses her late husband and visits his grave for a chat almost every day, filling him in on all her news. When she discovers where her estranged son is, and that she has a granddaughter that she knew nothing of, her world seems a little brighter. Her daughter, Eva, is not as excited. Still hurt by her her brothers quick departure from her life, she blames him for a lot of her bad memories and is hesitant to have anything to do with him or his new family. Alcohol leads to inappropriate hook-ups and placing herself in dangerous situations. The arrival of Nathalie changes all that. She is a breath a fresh air in a dusty environment and brings a connection and vibrancy to the family, that they didn't even know was missing.
The stories which unfold via the old letters are emotional. There can be no happy tales from the Nazi treatment of Jews and it is through letters like these that we learn the truth. Based on fact, this novel may come packaged as chick-lit, but is more than that. It is the story of an elderly woman with a host of memories to share. Some may be secrets, but need to be told. Some may be difficult to hear but deserved to be aired. Mostly, these are stories that bring a family closer together rather than tearing them apart. There is something very hard about ending family feuds. Longer gaps in communication make things seem a lot worse than they should be and the mountains that seem to be obstacles, and actually only be hills. An inspirational novel, which the author has an affinity with. Warm, lovingly written and full of hope....more
A small town in upstate New York, Black's Creek is about to be hit by tragedy. For a group of teenage boys in the 1970s, there's not much else to do bA small town in upstate New York, Black's Creek is about to be hit by tragedy. For a group of teenage boys in the 1970s, there's not much else to do but hang around, discussing comic books, TV shows and swim in the forbidden Jackson's Lake. Three best friends, a day they will never forget and a blood oath taken. The bravado they feel leads them to believe in their abilities to bring justice to the sleepy town, despite the Sheriff being close to home. Sometimes the answers to problems seem so obvious, but can teenagers make informed decisions without some kind of guidance?
This multi-layered book is more than just a crime noir. It is a story of friendship, idealism, innocence and trust. Tommy, Brent and Horseshoe are witness to a traumatic event and it shakes them up badly. The police force have their hands tied up in the legal tangles that a teenager cannot understand. When Brent suggests they take the law into their own hands, even drawing blood for a blood oath, the boys become connected in a world of deceit. Tommy's father is the town Sheriff and the town folk look up to him, calling to the house at all hours of day and night, with their woes. Tommy adores his father and all he represents. But when he snoops around in his fathers office he finds a diary containing the mans innermost thoughts. Suddenly the Sheriff becomes less hero and more human. The boys plan doesn't end the way they expected and their friendship is tested. But when the body of a young girl is found, the town looks to the Sheriff to find the culprit. Tommy wills his father on, while learning to deal with his own grief.
Sam Millar has written a novel of deep and intense feeling. The boys are young and innocent but each has their own individual personality, and very different sets of parents. The horror they have witnessed has changed them for ever and they will always feel that invisible bond. The writing style has echoes of Huckleberry Finn, Stand By Me and other wonderful coming of age novels. However, the book that kept coming back to me, as I read Black's Creek, was To Kill A Mockingbird. The character of Sheriff Hendersen has ideals and values that are similar to Atticus Finch, and his son completely trusts him, looks at him with adoration and learns from him in many ways. Not flawless, Tommy's father is a balance to his wife, who is a non-stop nit picker who has Tommy's heart broken with well intentioned nagging. The overall atmosphere in the Sheriffs house is one of logic and love. Tommy is a genuinely good kid, with a big heart and feels a need to put the world to rights. His friends, Brent and Horseshoe are also harmless kids who are trying to grow up at different rates and are finding themselves on a daily basis.
There are lessons to be learned for each character in this book. The narrative is strong, a town weighed down by grief and the uncertainty of how it will cope under pressure, also very similar to Harper Lee's classic novel. What Sam Millar has done, though, is bring the story to the forefront, allowing the adolescent protagonist lead, but not take over completely. A clever way of hooking the reader from the start. I would challenge anyone not to devour this book in one or two sittings, and I can confidently say that this is a novel like no other I have read in contemporary crime fiction. It is a story of a boy, a dark summer and a harsh introduction to adulthood. Pure Gold. ...more
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