 |
| Rossdale Print Productions My thanks to the author for my copy of this book |
What's it all about..
For the families of the victims of the St Botolph and Old Billingsgate disaster, the undoing of a miscarriage of justice should be a cause for rejoicing. For more than thirteen years, the search for truth has eaten up everything. Marriages, families, health, careers and finances.
Finally, the coroner has ruled that the crowd did not contribute to their own deaths. Finally, now that lies have been unravelled and hypocrisies exposed, they can all get back to their lives.
If only it were that simple.
My thoughts about it..
All too often we watch dreadful disasters unfold on our television screens, and after the initial outrage, we spare little thought for those who are left to pick up shattered pieces of lives which have been terribly altered. However, it's not just about those who survive such a tragedy, it's also about the families left behind, those forgotten victims who have to fight for their voices to be heard when everything around them has gone quiet.
Smash all the Windows shares the emotional aftermath of a London tube station disaster and we meet the families of the victims as they consider the ruling at the second inquest that the crowd did not contribute to their own deaths. That this second ruling comes thirteen years after the original disaster only proves, once again, just how slowly the wheels of justice turn. With little hope of a normal life, the families endure as best they can but irreversible loss just seems to get in the way of living any kind of life, and coping with the aftershocks of grief and heartache never end.
This is a very different view of
a difficult subject, and whilst the author confronts disaster in very
contemporary style, she also brings her characters to life in a totally believable
way. Running throughout the whole of the story is an aching vulnerability which I
found quite heart-breaking, and yet, despite the burden of sadness which
runs like an emotional thread, the story has, at its heart, a message of reconciliation
and, dare I say it, a little bit of hope.
There is no doubt that Smash all
the Windows is an emotional read, but it’s also an inspiring glimpse into the power
of the human spirit, and how in the end, we all need to reach out to somebody,
as we never really know when, or indeed how, our own journey will end.
Jane lives in Carshalton, Surrey with her Formula 1 obsessed, star-gazing, beer-brewing partner, surrounded by growing piles of paperbacks, CDs and general chaos. When she isn’t writing, you may spot her disappearing up a mountain with a camera in hand. Her favourite description of fiction is ‘made-up truth’.
Read an Interview with the Author here
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for taking the time to comment - Jaffareadstoo appreciates your interest.