A thoughtful novel that shows war’s impact on people and communities.
In Ferns’ debut historical novel, two English sisters follow different paths before and after World War II.
In 1937, free-spirited Rachel discovers that she’s pregnant, and she turns to her down-to-earth sibling Veronica for support. Veronica marries airman Richard Mathews, and Rachel, after giving birth to daughter Susie, moves in with one of the men she’d been seeing, who soon brings drugs and abusive behavior into the house they share. Veronica attempts to help Rachel and protect Susie, but Rachel resents her interference, and the sisters drift apart. Veronica moves to the countryside as World War II intensifies. As London faces the threat of German bombings, Veronica persuades a reluctant Rachel to send Susie to her home as part of a general evacuation of children from the city. When it appears that Rachel has been killed in the Blitz, Veronica and Richard adopt Susie, who grows up with no memory of her birth mother. After the war, Richard returns home, scarred by his military experience, and turns to heavy drinking. In the 1950s, Rachel suddenly returns, forcing the family members to come to terms with secrets they’ve kept and with their responsibilities to one another. Ferns introduces a number of nuanced and engaging secondary characters, including Veronica’s theatrical best friend Heather, who brings a touch of lightness to a story laden with heavy themes. The war and its aftermath are thoughtfully handled, and the characters experience growth and newfound maturity over the course of the novel. The postwar scenes of Richard’s alcoholism and subsequent treatment are particularly well -done and reflect Ferns’ real-life background as a retired psychologist. The prose is generally strong, although the dialogue is often stilted, as when characters awkwardly avoid using contractions: “I am not sure this is the right place for me,” Richard says at one point. “I am uncomfortable.”
A thoughtful novel that shows war’s impact on people and communities.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5323-9826-1
Page Count: 334
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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