Tuesday, 2 May 2017

Anita Shreve

An old favourite author of mine, I know I'll enjoy her style right from the start.


The Stars are Fire

Amazon.com link

My review - 

This story is based in a true event which took place in Maine seventy years ago. After an unusually hot and dry season, Grace’s home is destroyed in a wildfire and she and her children narrowly escape with their lives. Her husband, Gene, with whom she had a deteriorating relationship, is missing, presumed dead. Grace takes a job at the local doctor’s and moves into the home of her late mother-in-law. Her life settles down with her mother and a lodger – a brilliant pianist. Things are not at all as settled as she hopes.


As with a previous novel, Sea Glass, Anita Shreve uses the New England coast to set her scenes and its wild storms for a backdrop to the personal tales of the family. Grace feels like a captive. She’s tied to her children, tied to her husband and very much a product of the age in which she was raised. Anita Shreve’s style of cool and considered prose follows Grace’s self-discovery without making it over-dramatic it. It’s a great display of inner strength and I found it an encouraging story. 

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