History of wolves by Emily Fridland

I don't know who it is that selects the books on the 'Libraries Recommends' table but these days I rarely get far beyond it as the choices are so good. This last one finally dragged me away from the historical novels and I was plonked right back in the present in the company of a very quirky teenager.

Linda lives in a town near Duluth Minnesota, very close to Lake Superior and not too far from the border with Canada. She enjoys her outdoors lifestyle and is happy trekking through the woods or setting out on the local lake in her canoe. Her family used to be part of a religious community that lived together in the woods, but most of the members eventually moved away and she rejoined mainstream life.

Across the lake from Linda's family's lot there is a lodge that has been rented by a family with a little boy, but the father seems to be away most of the time. Linda often sees the mother and child and becomes friendly with them to the point that the mother, Patra, askes her to become a regular babysitter for her son Paul. Linda likes the boy and has an easy relationship with him as the two of them are naturally curious of the world around them.

Linda becomes a trusted part of the family but she has an uneasy feeling about the father, who Patra clearly idolises, but there is something about the way he speaks that is too intense and therefore disturbing. He is a Christian Scientist and his family have been practicing this religion for three generations so he has an unwavering belief in their teachings. The Church has a particular belief in spiritual healing, and when their son seems ill there is no mention of calling a doctor.

There is a running darkness to this novel but Linda is a likeable kid and we see the whole story play out from her point of view. Beneath the storyline the author seems to be asking how much we really see as we go through life, and how much do we accept as we seek to normalise traumatic events? Do we overlay everything with our own experience.

The plot is well written and a sympathetic attitude is taken to both sides of opposing views. It's an original story line that doesn't seem to follow any formula and I was impressed by the way the author tells the ending way before the end of the book, but never makes the book any less interesting.

Comments

Violeta by Isabel Allende

Published: 2022, Bloomsbury Genre: Fiction Themes: South America, family relationships, business My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤ If I ever tell my life story, I will take a leaf out of Violeta's book and make sure you understand that everybody loved me, and despite all sorts of questionable behaviour on my part, I leave the world as a winner. This is the story of a hundred year life. Violeta is approaching the end, but before she goes she is determined to write out her life story for someone she loves dearly. You don't get to know who that special someone is for most of the book, but that just serves to give the narrative a little twist. I didn't much like the character of Violeta but I understand that people who don't go round upsetting the apple cart don't make for very interesting stories. With such a great time span to play with, Isabel Allende had plenty of scope for changing Violeta's circumstances and adding in references to world events to keep the reader...

Holding by Graham Norton

Published: October 2016, Hodder and Stoughton Genre: fiction Themes: Ireland, crime, secrets, relationships, family My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤ I went into the library looking for a book by Graham Norton as I keep seeing positive comments about his books on Twitter, and I felt I might be missing something. Holding seems to be his first book, and the library copy has a Radio 2 Book Club sticker on it, and I think it's fair to say that it's a perfect book for that reading group. It's a chatty style of writing that I could imagine would be how Graham would recount a tale if he was in conversation with someone, and there are sufficient strong elements to the plot-line to keep it interesting to the end. When I first started reading I thought it was going to be a bit thin on plot, as much of the story involved character descriptions, and I was starting to wonder how it was going to pull together. Then the dramatic events began to unfold and, once I could see how everyon...

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...

dittybox

Search This Blog