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| November 2013 KateHewitt Ltd |
Following the break down of her marriage Ava Lancet escapes to a small Greek village, ostensibly to check out the dilapidated cottage which she has inherited from her dead grandmother, but also to heal her emotional wounds in peace and tranquillity. Her arrival in the village is the cause of much speculation, but it is her uncanny similarity to her grandmother , Sophia, which sparks memories long buried.
In 1942, Sophia Paranoussis is enrolled, albeit unwillingly, into the local resistance , where she is given the task of aiding twelve British special operation executives who have parachuted into Greece to blow up the nearby Gorgopotamos viaduct.
What then follows is a well written dual time narrative which explores Ava's life in the present and her determination to find out more about her grandmother's life during WW2, whilst at the same time evaluating her own life, either with or without her husband, Simon. The transition between both time frames is expertly done, and the story flows well and captures both the indecision of Ava's modern marital dilemma, alongside the more poignant story of Sophia's involvement in the danger and uncertainty of living through the German occupation of Greece.
Overall, this was a nicely written multi generational family saga which kept my attention from beginning to end.
My thanks to NetGalley and Kate Hewitt Ltd for my ecopy of this book.
The past WW2 and present day narratives reminds me a lot of how Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks is written. Although I didn't really appreciate how those two timelines linked together, I think it's quite an adventurous means of writing, although perhaps slightly overdone? I'm glad you enjoyed this ], it sounds like the author had a firm grip on where she was taking the plot.
ReplyDeleteNell at And Nell Writes