Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

For me, Elizabeth Strout's greatest strength lies in all the things she does not say.

You journey with her through the whole panoramic human landscape of her stories, but you never once have to stop to wonder if the engine is working. You don't have to read the signposts as you progress, because you always have confidence that she will bring you home and you will know more about being human than you ever did at the outset.

With some writers, I can feel the mechanics of construction as I go along. Sometimes there are actual, visible, engineering structures in books (give the reader a wave Lionel Shriver and raise your copy of Shall we go or shall we stay). In other books the writer is so worried that we will miss the point that the narration is practically accompanied by flashing lights. (Yes you, Isabelle Allende. Violetta was not your best work I'm afraid.) Elizabeth Strout trusts the reader to quietly listen and allow the story to settle around them like warmth from a glowing fire.

Oh William! is about marriage and parenthood and family dynamics. Everything that contributes to the fluid concept of being a wife, a mother, a friend or daughter. We're back in the company of Lucy Barton who tells her story as though there is only one reader in the world and that reader just so happens to be you.

Comments

Violeta by Isabel Allende

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The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

Publisher: Head of Zeus, 2021 Genre: Fiction Themes: Ancient Pompeii, slaves, brothel My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤ If, like me, you spent most of your history lessons looking out the window and didn't really absorb very much about the ancient Roman Empire, nil desperandum, as you will still manage perfectly well with this book. Set in first century Pompeii, the story follows the life of Amara, a young Greek woman who has been shipped to Pompeii as a slave and then bought by the owner of The Wolf Den brothel. As the daughter of a doctor, she was bought up in relatively comfortable circumstances, but a series of terrible events turned her life upside down and she is now trapped in an endless cycle of fear and degradation with almost no hope of escape. Amara is one of a group of slaves working in the Wolf Den, and they do what they can to protect one another from serious harm, but Amara knows that if she wants anything better for herself, she must make the brothel ow...

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