An absorbing look at how the high-stakes circumstances of war reveal character.
Two women fight to preserve family, love, and truth in this debut historical novel.
Marguerite is 14 years old when her French village is invaded by the German army during World War II. It’s 1940, and the early days of the occupation remain relatively peaceful on the orders of Maj. Wolfgang Müller, the area’s Kommandant. Although her mother despises all Germans, Marguerite agrees to cook for the Kommandant and his staff and is surprised to observe that Müller is a kind, upright man. The novel alternates between Marguerite’s observations and the Kommandant’s letters and diary entries, which show that he remains a devoted husband and father, treats French citizens with dignity, and believes that his ultimate goal is to send the message that “Germany is beginning its momentous task of moulding Europe into its own likeness.” For Marguerite, the most momentous change is that she falls in love with a young German soldier and must hide her affair from her family. Meanwhile, the Kommandant faces a challenge from an officer who believes the area needs harsher policies, and he worries about the motivations of Nazis like this man, whom he considers “a bully in a uniform.” From this dramatic first section, the book jumps ahead 50 years to follow Catherine Swannell, who has been invited to visit her distant cousin Marguerite. Catherine becomes engrossed in reassembling the past, searching for answers to lingering questions about what happened long ago. In this thoughtful novel, Rowan brings the French countryside to life with gentle, lyrical descriptions. Nations may grapple with war around the globe, she suggests, but beauty can still be found amid the “rippling river,” the “silky golden stubble” of wheat, and the “rustling of birds settling” in the hedgerows of this close-knit village. The layered, sympathetic figure of the Kommandant provides the story’s major questions: How can good compete with an evil that follows no rules or code? And at what point do your intentions clash with your reality? There’s a sentimental streak to the romantic passages, but overall the author capably adds nuance to familiar set pieces.
An absorbing look at how the high-stakes circumstances of war reveal character.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-909979-83-3
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Crux Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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