Bought in the Bookpeople Summer Sale for the bargain price of £1.33!

Wow, what a book! Cried continously through the last hour of reading it! It's our bookclub book for next week, so I think we'll have an interesting discussion!

Amazon review:
I bought this book only because it was in the 3 for 2 sale at Waterstones, never having heard of it, or the author, before. Reading it got slightly uncomfortable at points - for one, the moral dilemma at the crux of the plot had me squirming because it's one of those situations you just don't wanna think about - secondly, characters take it in turn to narrate chapters, and though this generally works well, the fact they all use the same introspective reflective tone can get a bit eerie.

One review inside the cover says the book ends with a big twist, so I started trying to spot it from the start - no chance, it came totally out of nowhere. And when it finally turned up, it had me bawling my eyes out (I haven't cried at a book since I read "The Last Battle" (Chronicles of Narnia) at the age of about 8). Seriously, I cried for about 10 minutes, and I don't even have kids.

At the same time, the book isn't an emotional blackmail attempt using cliches as tear-jerkers, but simply, gently and originally written. It comments in a roundabout way on families, parenting, and growing up. I'm tempted to get hold of some more of the author's work, but I'm worried it won't live up to this one.

Bookclub: October 21st 2006

Attendees
Helen
Gretchen
Corine
Emily - Veg
Stefanie
Whitney
Tania
Sandra

What a great evening! 8 of us went to Sharon's house in Oberrieden (we only got a little bit lost!) and a fab time was had by all. Sharon and Jeremy had cooked this amazing Thai duck red curry, there was wine a plenty, and a cranberry cobbler (?) for pudding.

The discussion about the book was lively and heartfelt, and everyone enjoyed and had opinions about the book. We wondered why the author had written so critically about the Mother, we discussed the lack of communication between the parents and we spent most of the time analysing Kate's relationship to Anna. We compared notes as to how many times and when we'd cried, and the dog judge was much loved! Best brilliant insight of the evening came from Sandra, who realised that the opening passage about wanting to kill her sister, came from Kate's perspective not Anna's!

We all managed to catch the 22.55 train home, and the conversations continued on the S8! Many thanks to everyone for a lovely evening!

March 2007 - lent to Karen