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| Random House UK Transword 2014 |
A chance encounter with a friend
from university causes Anna to reflect on the life she has been living in the
intervening years. The past comes rolling back and Anna, plagued by memories,
knows that the time has now come for her to face the truth of recollection and to
grasp the chance to lay aside the ghosts of her past.
The story starts off reasonably
well with some good psychological insights into what makes Anna tick. She’s an
enigma, slightly offbeat, but with an incredibly damaged soul and it’s that
which drives the novel forward. When the story goes back in time, as it inevitably
must, I found that the main bulk of the story lacked appeal and became rather predictable
and I have to admit that I had guessed Anna’s secret long before it was
exposed. For me, the best part of the writing came in the descriptions of
student life at the fictional St. Barts College, Oxford and it would appear
that the author is putting her own personal knowledge of time spent at Oxford
to good use.
Overall, it’s a book about
friendship and of the choices we are forced to make, which for good or bad stay
with us throughout the rest of our lives. If you like stories about old friends
meeting up, all of whom have unfinished business, then this will interest
you, but I'm afraid it left me feeling decidedly underwhelmed.
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