Tag: historical fiction

#BookReview So Much Life Left Over by Louis De Bernières

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So Much Life Left OverAbout the Book

A sweeping, heartbreaking novel following Daniel in his troubled marriage with Rosie as they navigate the unsettled time between the World Wars.

Rosie and Daniel have moved to Ceylon with their little daughter to start a new life at the dawn of the 1920s, attempting to put the trauma of the First World War behind them, and to rekindle a marriage that gets colder every day. However, even in the lush plantation hills it is hard for them to escape the ties of home and the yearning for fulfilment that threatens their marriage.

Back in England, Rosie’s three sisters are dealing with different challenges in their searches for family, purpose and happiness. These are precarious times, and they find themselves using unconventional means to achieve their desires. Around them the world is changing, and when Daniel finds himself in Germany he witnesses events taking a dark and forbidding turn.

By turns humorous and tragic, gripping and touching, So Much Life Left Over follows a cast of unique and captivating characters as they navigate the extraordinary inter-war years both in England and abroad.

Format: Hardcover (288 pages)  Publisher: Harvill Secker
Publication date: 5th July 2018  Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

When I picked up this book, I didn’t realise it was the second book in a planned trilogy that started with The Dust That Falls From Dreams. Although it works perfectly well as a standalone, the book description makes me feel I would have enjoyed following the characters through the events of the earlier book first.

In So Much Life Left Over all the characters find themselves dissatisfied to a certain extent with what their lives have become. They are looking for direction, fulfilment, a challenge, a chance to contribute or pondering the ‘road not taken’. For example, Rosie’s sister, Sophie, is looking for something to replace the feeling of being valued she got from her war work. Her other sister, Christabel, is realising some opportunities only come along once in a lifetime. As she observes, ‘When I’m on my deathbed, I don’t want to be lying there thinking about all the things I never did.’

For some, like Daniel, the simple fact they have survived the war is unexpected leaving them, to quote the book’s title, with so much life left over. Their war experiences also make the boring, unimportant details of everyday life difficult to bear. ‘There is a kind of man who, having been at war, finds peacetime intolerable, because he cannot develop the civilian’s talent for becoming obsessed with irrelevant details and procedure. He hates the delays and haverings, the tedious diplomacy, the terrible lack of energy and discipline, and, above all, he hates the feeling that what he is doing is not important.’ As the humorously named Oily Wragge remarks, ‘War makes everything simple. There’s a tunnel in front of you and you put your head down, and you struggle forward for the light at the end of it one bloody impossible step at a time, and that frees you up somehow…’

Although I enjoyed the book, I wasn’t sure about the number of different points of view and the occasional switches between first and third person. Some of the narrators introduced felt as if they were there purely for the author to show off his (considerable) skill in creating distinct voices. Having said that, there were some great touches of humour and some memorable characters such as Mrs McCash who opines on subjects as diverse as when it’s appropriate to use the second best teapot and individuals who (horror!) conclude a sentence with a preposition and start a sentence with a conjunction. And you may chuckle like me at her response to the surprise contained in Mr McCash’s will, namely that he was ‘always a man for two birds with one stone’.

So Much Life Left Over is a beautifully told story of love and loss that certainly left me eager to find out what happens next. The final book in the trilogy, The Autumn of the Ace, is due to be published in November 2020.

In three words: Moving, intimate, assured

Try something similar: The Road to Grantchester by James Runcie

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IMG_6488printAbout the Author

Louis de Bernières is the bestselling author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Best Book in 1995. His most recent books are The Dust That Falls From Dreams, Birds Without Wings and A Partisan’s Daughter, a collection of stories, Notwithstanding, and two collections of poetry, Imagining Alexandria and Of Love and Desire. (Photo credit: author website)

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#BlogTour #BookReview The Walls We Build by Jules Hayes @rararesources

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The Walls We Build

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Walls We Build by Jules Hayes. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in the tour and for organising my review copy.

You can read my review below but, before you do, why not enter the giveaway for the chance to win a signed copy of The Walls We Build (see terms and conditions below). Enter via Rafflecopter here.

Oh, and do be sure to check out the posts by my tour buddies, Tracey at TraceysYearInBooks and Stefanie at The Magic of Wor(l)ds.

Giveaway Terms and Conditions

  • Worldwide entries welcome.
  • The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email.
  • If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner.
  • Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.
  • Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.
  •  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

The Walls We Build_EbookAbout the Book

Three Friends … Growing up together around Winston Churchill’s estate in Westerham, Kent, Frank, Florence and Hilda are inseparable. But as WW2 casts its menacing shadow, friendships between the three grow complex, and Frank – now employed as Churchill’s bricklayer – makes choices that will haunt him beyond the grave, impacting his grandson’s life too.

Two Secrets … Shortly after Frank’s death in 2002, Florence writes to Richard, Frank’s grandson, hinting at the darkness hidden within his family. On investigation, disturbing secrets come to light, including a pivotal encounter between Frank and Churchill during the war and the existence of a mysterious relative in a psychiatric hospital.

One Hidden Life … How much more does Florence dare reveal about Frank – and herself – and is Richard ready to hear?

Set against the stunning backdrop of Chartwell, Churchill’s country home, comes a tragic story of misguided honour, thwarted love and redemption, reverberating through three generations and nine decades. For readers of Kate Morton, Rachel Hore, Katherine Webb, Lucinda Riley and Juliet West.

“Passion, intrigue and family secrets drive this complex wartime relationship drama. A page turner. I loved it.” (#1 bestselling author, Nicola May)

Format: Paperback (462 pages)          Publisher: Jukebox Publishing
Publication date: 18th March 2020  Genre: Historical Fiction (Dual Time)

Find The Walls We Build on Goodreads

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

My Review

I was drawn to this book both by its setting (I visited Chartwell some years ago) but also by the promise of an absorbing family drama combining past and present. I was not disappointed on either count.

I loved the sections set in Chartwell and the occasional appearances by Winston Churchill. The author really managed to capture his humanity, charisma and effect on those around him but also his eccentricity and his very human flaws. It is Churchill who provides the advice that gives the book its title. “Remember, the walls we build are not to keep people out but to keep our mind within… Often we are our own wall.”

The Walls We Build is intricately plotted and the frequent switches in time period and changes of point of view do require some concentration on the part of the reader. However, this effort will be well-rewarded. I particularly admired the sections involving Frank’s wartime experiences in North Africa which were both gripping and realistically depicted.

It is a clever choice by the author to make Frank’s grandson, Richard, a barrister. With his lawyer’s instinct for uncovering the truth and his keen sense of justice – not to mention some useful resources at his disposal and the odd bit of luck – he is a natural vehicle ‘to make sense of the muted kaleidoscope of his family’s past’ and, on the reader’s behalf, to join together the dots, as it were, from the hints and clues scattered throughout the book. Richard also faces his own present day family dilemmas, some of which echo past events with history in danger repeating itself. At the same time, they underline how times and attitudes have changed.

Spanning the decades from 1920s to 2002, the book touches on some important themes including attitudes to mental illness and women’s changing role in society. The Walls We Build is also a compelling and emotional story about how secrets of the past, however seemingly well-buried, have a habit of coming to the surface eventually and how actions can have unforseen consequences. For Frank, Hilda and Florence that is definitely the case. As Florence observes, ‘Secrets and denial: if there’d been fewer of the former and more understanding of the latter, all of their destinies would have taken a different path’.

In three words: Emotional, dramatic, compelling

Try something similar: The House by the Loch by Kirsty Wark

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The Walls We Build Author PhotoAbout the Author

Jules Hayes lives in Berkshire with her husband, daughter and a dog. She has a degree in modern history and holds a particular interest in events and characters from the early 20th century. As a former physiotherapist and trainer – old habits die hard – when not writing Jules likes to run. She also loves to watch films, read good novels and is a voracious consumer of non-fiction too, particularly biographies.

Jules is currently working on her second historical novel, another dual timeline story. Jules also writes contemporary thriller and speculative fiction as J A Corrigan.

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