Welcome to Litsy!

This one deserves all of your love, especially if you‘re into awesome Canadian literature. This gorgeously written, compulsively readable family saga, focussing around the disappearance of two women from a working class town, is layered with secrets, masterfully revealed.

#ohcanada #canlit #fiction

A very Booker Prize-ish book - it was a bit tricky. This is a series of stories spanning 1908 to 2025 covering love, both romantic and between parent and child, loss, war and science. What I struggled with was the telling, individual stories moving back and forth in time, the narrative in each story also moving around from paragraph to paragraph. Lovely in parts, but it was harder work than I‘m willing to invest.

I would rate this a pick with caution as this is one I would only recommend to the literary reader. It is told from multiple POVs and jumps back and forth through time, often changing to brand new characters. I found it to be very confusing (I wanted a family tree) and it really should be read more than once. That said, the writing is beautiful and very thought provoking, and each chapter held my interest, but I admit I wanted more. 3.5/5 stars.

McCorkle is an experienced and talented short story writer. These contained all the elements that should make a great short story. But despite the competent writing, these didn‘t really sing to me. There was nothing particularly memorable or special about them. Low pick.

This #TOBlonglist book actually looks like snarky fun that I would enjoy. But it‘s just not working for me right now. So back to the library it goes!

I really wanted to like this book, especially since it touches on topics like nuclear testing on "uninhabited" sites and the effects of radiation on the land and pregnancy. But the story was very slow, the revelations came late, and it felt unresolved. I thought we'd get some thought-provoking message but it's like the author changed their mind (abt a lot) & decided not to say anything/make it out to be "nothing". It felt disingenuous

#Midwintersolace #Litsolace

Be kind, always. 💛

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@TheBookHippie @Chrissyreadit

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