I have loved the opportunity to spend time researching novels to re-stockl our senior bookshelves in the school library that plays a central role in the life of the school. When I first took over the library was filled with dusty tomes that were never borrowed and languished there totally unloved.
Books like this, play a central role in ensuring that the library is stocked with fresh relevant fiction that appeals to the readers. It has a strong voice and a compelling plot that ensures that you speed through its pages, enjoying both its characterisation and dialogue whilst wanting to find out how all of its strands will be resolved by the end.
I have no hesitation in adding this to the 'must buy' list so that the senior students and staff of the school can enjoy it as much as I did. This is a gripping read that will be sure to grip its readers whether they are fans of this genre or coming to it for the first time through our now-thriving school library recommendation system. Thanks so much for allowing me to review it!

In this compelling family saga set against the backdrop of the second Quebec referendum (a subject I suggest will be unfamiliar to many UK readers!) we shift perspectives between 10 year old Jim and his mother as they each cope with a marriage in decline. Split between New York and a lakeside property in rural Canada, it’s a moving and nuanced reflection on motherhood, family, marriage, friendship and loyalty. Set in the mid-1990s when Quebec was on the verge of leaving Canada, the political aspects of the novel add an engaging layer to the narrative. Elizabeth Hay is a wonderful writer, perceptive, empathetic and compassionate, equally adept at describing children as she is adults. The complexities of family life, the importance of friendship, the troubles of growing up, all are beautifully portrayed in this absorbing and moving novel. Thoroughly enjoyable.

This is my first book by Elizabeth Hay and I can tell she is a talented writer. Some of the descriptions of landscape, in particular the lake scenes in Canada, are wonderful. However, I wasn’t quite as positive about other aspects of the book. The author has created a complex family structure with many ex-spouses, deceased spouses, deceased siblings and estranged siblings – perhaps a little too much tragedy in one family to be believable. I understand what the author was trying to do linking the debate over Quebec - should it separate from Canada or stay part of it - with the situation in Jim’s family but it seemed a little tenuous to me and I couldn’t really appreciate the importance of this as an issue. Perhaps it would have more significance to a Canadian reader. My other problem was that I didn’t find Jim a believable ten-year old as he is supposed to be at the beginning of the book. I kept having to remind myself he is supposed to be a young child. The character I felt was really successful was Lulu and the book dipped a little for me during the periods she wasn’t in it. So although I admired the quality of writing, the story didn’t really grab me.

I loved this beautiful novel which touched me deeply with its hard-won wisdom, tender depictions of fraught relationships amongst family and friends, and the transporting sense of the wild. It deserves far greater recognition than it has had to date in the UK - I hope the paperback release and the stunning cover will change that.