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Review Date: 4/12/2008
Helpful Score: 1
A novel by the author of The English Patient. This book pulls you immediately into the lives of two sisters, Anna and Claire, and their different bonds to an orphaned neighbor boy, Coop, who came to live in an old log cabin on their land. The novel is told by each of them, talking in the present and the past, and winds through a tale that holds you spellbound until the very end. The story is wrapped around how each of them respond to a single event in time, and how it informs the rest of their lives. It is a roller coaster of emotion, memory, what could have been, and what really is - for each of them. I could not put it down from the first page to the last page.
Review Date: 8/5/2012
Haakon's mother lives entirely for her Bergen lakeside garden. When Haakon pays his annual visit home to his mother, the garden is being tended not only by the elderly widow but also by her new young acolyte, Felice. From this new alliance of botanical ladies, Haakon finds himself excluded.
Review Date: 8/2/2015
This book is gripping read from the first page. I was looking for a book to start before going to sleep 3 days ago. This was not the right choice, as I could not put it down. The history of a family is told from multiple characters, yet the storyline flows smoothly and each character adds yet another nuance to the multilayered story of a son, starting with the burial of a man he has always known as a father. The theme of bees, the queen as the life force of the hive, the drones who devote their life to serving her, and the predators who engender the hives survival wind through this family both literally and figuratively. The book is so well done that it is hard to believe this is a debut novel. The words are sparse, well chosen, and pulled me into the moment, the emotion, and the characters effortlessly. If this author has published more, he has a fan for life. I can't wait to share this find with others
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