dual time – What Cathy Read Next…

About the Book

Book cover of Afterlight by Jaap Robben, translated by David Doherty

The young free-spirited florist Frieda grew up in a strictly Catholic environment in the 1960s. When she steps onto a frozen river on a late winter afternoon, little does she know that everything is about to change for her. On the ice she meets the married Otto. They experience a love that begins stormy and ends fatefully: Frieda becomes pregnant – a scandal in the world in which she moves. And so she must never be the mother of her secret child.

For decades she kept her memories of this episode in her life to herself. But the grief for the lost child remains, despite the later marriage, despite the son she still has. At the age of eighty-one, Frieda is suddenly alone again. The silent sorrow returns with force. Only then does she dare to face her story – and to share it.

Format: eARC (314 pages) Publisher: World Editions
Publication date: 7th May 2024 Genre: Fiction

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My Review

The author shows a deft touch in each of the two timelines. In the present day, he movingly depicts Frieda’s grief at the death of her husband, Louis, and the many little decisions a bereaved person is expected to make at such a time: where should the loved one’s ashes be scattered, evenwhat shape should the scattered ashes form. ‘Everything Louis once was, everything I once loved, is a spot of dust that steadily grows into a circle.’

Frieda also experiences a profound sense of dislocation, forced to leave the home she and Louis shared and move into sheltered accommodation. She tests the patience of her son, Tobias, who has taken on the task of clearing the house, by making what seem to him odd requests for certain items. We only learn the significance of these items later, along with the reason she lashes out in a moment of anger and why she becomes so distressed when a moth is drawn to the light of her window.

Staying with that image, you could say the young Frieda is drawn to Otto like a moth to a flame. Unfortunately, it’s clear from pretty early on she’s going to get burned. I could see why Frieda might be attracted to this older, self-assured man who initially seems to treat her with courtesy and respect. However, it wasn’t long before I began to view his actions as those of a man trying to have his cake and eat it, and one unwilling to take full responsibility for the consequences of his actions.

It might be the swinging 60’s in London but in the Netherlands, especially amongst the Catholic community, the treatment of an unmarried mother seems like something from decades earlier. Frieda is presented with an impossible choice and, when she refuses, is shunned by her family and forced to fend for herself with near fatal consequences. There are heartbreaking scenes as Frieda is treated as a social pariah even by those whose vocation you’d think would be all about compassion. I found the cruelty with which she is treated quite shocking.

As Frieda discovers, in the age of the Internet, you can find out just about anything. It provides her with a chance to find the answer to a question that has haunted her for so long. I confess, that answer left me a little tearful.

Afterlight is a beautifully crafted, moving novel that also reveals a shocking hidden story of injustice.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of World Editions via NetGalley.

In three words: Emotional, poignant, insightful

About the Author

Jaap Robben is an acclaimed Dutch author. His novel Summer Brother was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2021.

Afterlight is his third novel published by World Editions. (Photo: Goodreads author page)

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About the Translator

David Doherty studied English and literary linguistics in Glasgow before moving to Amsterdam, where he has been working as a translator for over twenty years. His literary work includes novels by award-winning authors Marente de Moor, Peter Terrin, and Alfred Birney. Summer Brother, his translation of Jaap Robben’s Zomervacht, won the 2021 Vondel Translation Prize.

About the Book

1951 – Esther Durrant, a young mother, is committed to an asylum by her husband. Run by a pioneering psychiatrist, the hospital is at first Esther’s prison – but can captivity lead to freedom?

2018 – When marine scientist Rachel Parker is forced to take shelter on an isolated island off the Cornish Coast during a research posting, she discovers a collection of hidden love letters. Captivated by their passion and tenderness, Rachel is determined to find the intended recipient.

Meanwhile, in London, Eve is helping her grandmother write her memoirs. When she is contacted by Rachel, it sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to reveal secrets kept buried for more than sixty years.

Format: Paperback (384 pages) Publisher: Orion
Publication date: 6th February 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant is an accomplished dual time story in which I was equally engaged by both the past and present day stories, something that doesn’t always happen in such books. I also liked the setting of the Scilly Isles, one I haven’t come across before in a work of fiction.

The chapters that gradually reveal Esther’s story shine a light on the lack of understanding about post-natal depression. Indeed it is regarded as a form of madness. The way in which Esther’s despair manifests itself is treated not with kindness but with crude measures of control, and she is effectively duped into travelling to the island of Little Embers by her husband. Is he doing so to rid himself of a “problem” or because he believes, perhaps misguidedly, it is the best way to help her?

As it happens, Dr Richard Creswell, the psychiatrist in charge of the hospital (which is actually just a large but remote house) is more enlightened than many of his peers. Ahead of his time, he believes in what today we would call talking therapies and the healing power of nature. This enlightened attitude is also apparent in his treatment of the other patients under his care, all of whom are struggling with the after effects – both mental and physical – of their experiences during the war. As one of them confides to Esther, ‘People like us have to find a way to live with our sorrow, for it can never be banished forever’ and touchingly the patients do become a kind of family for one another.

I liked the way the small, remote island of Little Embers initially appears bleak, mirroring Esther’s troubled state of mind when she first arrives, but begins to show its beauty as the process of her recovery begins. ‘The tranche of shifting grey-blue sea lay like a hammered metal sheet… pockmarked with islets and swarming with seabirds hovering on currents of warmer air.’ But what never leaves her is her sadness at being parted from her five-year old son, Teddy. She finds solace in her daily meetings with Dr Creswell that begin as counselling sessions but develop into conversations about a shared love of music and literature.

In the modern day storyline, Rachel’s discovery of a cache of letters, written but never sent, reveal an abiding love of the kind she has never experienced herself. Moving from place to place, she has never formed – or wanted to form – any lasting attachments, unwilling to be tied down to any one person. Like Esther, it’s the Scilly Isles (in this case the main island of St. Mary’s) and its spirit of community – and one particular member of that community – that starts to make her think there is nothing to be feared from setting down roots.

The identity of the writer of the letters and the intended recipient are not hard to guess but I don’t think the author intended it to be so. The different threads come together in a very satisfying way revealing a moving story of two people whose moral principles kept them apart for decades. You may need some tissues handy at the end.

In three words: Emotional, moving, intimate

Try something similar: The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford

About the Author

Kayte Nunn is the internationally bestselling author of seven novels including The Botanist’s Daughter (awarded the 2020 Winston Graham Award), The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant, The Silk House, The Last Reunion and The Only Child. Kayte’s novels are available worldwide in English, and have been translated into ten languages. Born in Singapore, raised in the US and the UK, she now lives in Northern NSW, Australia.

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