Category: Blog Tour

Blog Tour/Book Review: A River in the Trees by Jacqueline O’Mahony

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I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the social media tour for A River in the Trees by Jacqueline O’Mahony alongside my tour buddies, Laura Patricia Rose, somewhereinabook and tome.raiders.  Thanks to Ana at Quercus Books for inviting me to take part in the tour and for approving my request for the book on NetGalley. You can read my review of this captivating dual-time historical novel below.

A River in the TreesAbout the Book

Two women. Two stories. One hundred years of secrets.

1919 – Hannah is nineteen years old and living on her family’s farm in West Cork. Her peaceful world is shattered forever by the eruption of the War of Independence. Hannah’s family hide rebel soldiers in their attic, putting themselves in grave danger from the Black and Tans roaming the countryside. An immediate connection between and O’Riada, the leader of the rebel band, will change her life and that of her family forever.

2019 – Ellen is at a crossroads in her life: her marriage is in trouble, her career is over and she’s grieving the loss of a baby. After years in London, she decides to come home to Ireland to face the past she has always tried to escape. Her journey centres on an old house in the countryside, a house that used to belong to her family. Reaching into the past, she feels a connection to her ancestor, the mysterious Hannah O’Donovan. But why won’t anyone in her family talk about Hannah? And how can this journey help Ellen put her life back together?

Praise for A River in the Trees

“A fierce, beautifully told story, which keeps the reader gripped until the very last page. Jacqueline O’ Mahony is one to watch.” [Louise O’Neill]

“Compassionate yet unsentimental, sharply insightful yet steeped in story, this debut is a thrill to discover.” [Belinda McKeon, author of Tender]

Format: Hardcover, ebook (336 pp.)    Publisher: riverrun
Published: 10th January 2019        Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find A River in the Trees on Goodreads

My Review

Told from alternating points of view, the stories and experiences of the two women – Hannah in 1919 and Ellen in the present day – subtly mirror each other in some respects and provide contrasts in others.  The author leaves it to the reader to make the connections or note the differences between how the two women respond to the events that unfold in their lives and the choices they make.

Ellen is a troubled, lost soul, seemingly suffering from a form of post-natal depression, who has turned to alcohol as an emotional crutch and reached a crisis point in her life. ‘I’m in a tunnel now, she thought – my life is narrowing down and down and behind me is every wrong decision I’ve ever made and ahead of me if only fear, and I can’t move forwards, and I can’t move back.’  The loss of their baby has exposed the pre-existing fissures in the relationship between Ellen and her husband, Simon.  Their instincts, choices and responses to events seem so fundamentally different it is no surprise that their marriage is in trouble.  (What is a surprise is that they married in the first place). ‘There was so much of Simon and he was so sure of himself and so unshakeable; he moved through his days like a ship moving through an icy sea, breaking through the ice before him, unaffected, untouchable.’  In a way, Ellen’s interest in Hannah’s story is a distraction from having to think about her own future.  She has spent her whole life running away from things. ‘It is easier to leave, to disappear, she thought sadly.  The harder thing is to stay and face yourself.’

The sections written from Ellen’s point of view, especially as she struggles to control her anxiety, evoked feelings of sympathy in this reader but she is a character it is difficult to really like.  I felt more personally engaged in Hannah’s story and concern for how the unfolding events would affect her, especially as I was drawn to the historical aspects of her story.  From fairly early on, the reader knows there is some mystery about what happened to Hannah – but will the answers be revealed by Hannah herself or by Ellen’s discovery of details about past events?

I found myself thinking as I was reading the sections from Hannah’s point of view that I wished I knew more (or perhaps should know more) about the history of Ireland in the early part of the 20th century.  The reader gets a strong sense of Ireland and Irish identity from the way in which the author writes about its landscape, culture and history and the narrative and dialogue is gently permeated with the rhythm and vernacular of the Irish language.  Through Hannah’s deeply felt connection with her family home and lands, and Ellen’s desire to own something that connects her to her ancestral roots, I was left with a sense of Ireland as a place that inhabits those who are born there, even if they move away.

The book is full of clever, skilful writing, imaginative language and evocative descriptions: ‘The ditches on either side were too high to see over.  It was like descending into a sea of green water: the air was green, the sky overhead was green; the car was swimming through the greenness.’

A River in the Trees is an assured and impressive debut. From the dramatic opening scene, I found myself transfixed by the story it tells and I look forward to reading more from Jacqueline O’Mahony in future.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, riverrun, and NetGalley.

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In three words: Lyrical, emotional, compelling

Try something similar…The Concubine’s Child by Carol Jones (read my review here)

jacqueline o'mahony - use this oneAbout the Author

Jacqueline O’Mahony is from Cork, Ireland. She did her BA in Ireland, her MA at the University of Bologna, and her PhD in History as a Fulbright Scholar at Duke University and at Boston College. She has worked as a writer, editor and stylist at Tatler, Vogue and the Irish Independent. She lives in Notting Hill with her husband and three young children.

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Blog Tour/Book Review: My Sister, Myself by Jill Treseder

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My Sister Myself Blog Tour Poster

I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for My Sister, Myself by Jill Treseder.  Thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to publishers, SilverWood Books, for my review copy.

My Sister MyselfAbout the Book

Hungary, 1956 – Russian tanks brutally crush the revolution against the Communist regime. Sisters Katalin and Marika escape Budapest with their family and settle in London.

However, the past is not so easily left behind. Their father is a wanted man, and the sisters’ relationship hangs in the balance. Their futures are shaped by loss. For Katalin, this means the failure of her ambition and a devastating discovery; for Marika, an equally heart-breaking experience.

Caught between their Hungarian heritage and their new lives in Britain, the sisters struggle to reconnect. Family secrets are exposed, jeopardising Katalin’s and Marika’s identities.

Can their relationship survive war, division and grief?

Format: Paperback, ebook (258 pp.)    Publisher: SilverWood Books
Published: 31st July 2018   Genre: Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find My Sister, Myself on Goodreads

My Review

From the book description, I think I was expecting much more of the book to deal with events in Hungary during a particularly turbulent, violent and repressive period of its history.  What there was, the author conveyed in vivid, often shocking detail, making one wonder what lasting impact witnessing such sights must had have on children like Katalin and Marika.   Katalin’s journey with her father across the border to Austria I found a particularly compelling section of the book.

In telling the story of Marika and Katalin, the author has made some interesting stylistic choices, such as having the sections from Katalin’s point of view told in third person and those from Marika’s point of view in first person.  Personally, because I had direct access to her thoughts and feelings, this meant I felt more engagement with Marika than with Katalin.  In addition, there were switches from past to present tense (sometimes within the same chapter), with memories from the past being written in the present tense and those in the present in the past tense.  In the opening chapters, I found this a little confusing; I had to reread those chapters to ensure I’d got the timelines straight in my mind.  Klara, Marika’s and Katalin’s aunt, is introduced as an additional narrative voice once the family arrive in England.  This  did provide an interesting independent perspective on the two sisters’ behaviour and relationship.

If I didn’t learn as much about events in post-war Hungary as I had expected, the author certainly delivered a thought-provoking, emotionally charged depiction of the often troubled relationship between two sisters.  From their quarrelsome and fractious childhood to the misunderstandings of their teenage years, the reader gets a compelling insight into how their early experiences shaped them and affected their hopes, fears and dreams.  The revelation that occurs part way through the book wasn’t a particular surprise to me (the very subtle signposting by the author was there for an observant reader) although the reaction to it certainly was.

My Sister, Myself is an intriguing story about identity, family ties, divided loyalties, displacement, loneliness, the experience of being an outsider and of trying to find your place in a world that seems unfamiliar, hostile or just plain confusing.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, SilverWood Books, and Random Things Tours.

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In three words: Thought-provoking, emotional, intimate

Try something similar…Shadows on the Grass by Misha M. Herwin (read my review here)

Jill Treseder Author PictureAbout the Author

Jill writes: ‘I started writing in a red shiny exercise book when I was seven years old. But in that time and place it was an ‘invalid’ activity, was overlooked, but never went away. It was many years before I felt able to call myself ‘writer’.

But there came a day when the phrase ‘I am a writer’ no longer sounded pretentious, but legitimate, and even necessary. Was it because I had a writing room instead of the corner of a landing? Or because I spent more time writing? Or because I’d got better at it? Or because I get miserable and bad-tempered if I don’t write? Probably a combination of all of the above.

Writing is my third career. The first was as a social worker with children and families, a job I loved, but left because I could no longer cope with the system.

This led to a freelance career as an independent management consultant, helping people to handle emotions in the work context. I worked in the IT industry, in companies large and small, as well as public organisations. Later I became involved in research projects concerned with the multi-disciplinary approach to social problems such as child abuse. So, in a sense, I had come full-circle. All these experiences feed into the process of writing fiction, while my non-fiction book, The Wise Woman Within, resulted indirectly from the consultancy work and my subsequent PhD thesis, ‘Bridging Incommensurable Paradigms’, which is available from the School of Management at the University of Bath.

I live in Devon and visit Cornwall frequently and these land and seascapes are powerful influences which demand a presence in my writing.

Writers’ groups and workshops are a further invaluable source of inspiration and support and I attend various groups locally and sign up for creative courses in stunning locations whenever I can. I try doing writing practice at home but there is no substitute for the focus and discipline achieved among others in a group.

I have written some short stories and recently signed up for a short story writing course to explore this genre in more depth.

I live with my husband in South Devon and enjoy being involved in a lively local community.

Connect with Jill

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