I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Doesn't seem fair to review a book that you couldn't finish. I thought this would be a thriller/suspense novel but it was very slow and I didn't really enjoy the style.
Raphael didn't really get me on his side when he goes to his favourite writers house for writing advice a man who obviously wants to be left alone. I couldn't get into the story and felt that the characters detail of his life and the blocks of news articles at the beginning just didn't help the pacing. Not what I expected from the hype in the synopsis and I couldn't continue.

i was intrigued by the title and the author's reputation as a thriller writer. the narrator becomes entranced by Fawley , a top novelist who quit writing - and goes in search of him - he trips across an encounter the reclusive writer had with a journalist who has closer ties than anyone knew - but i was really unconvinced by the ending - and the amount of explanation the reclusive author and our narrator devote to setting it out means, i think, that Musso himself had difficulty with it too. all too much. nice writing, and good character development for the most part just overly done - it all loses drive just short of half way through! i wonder why he wrote this all out ... hmm

This was my first Musso book, I had read good reviews of his previous works, but I´m sorry to say that I did not enjoy this at all. The characters and plot reminded me of other books I have read, I didn´t think it was original or unique in any way. The plot was slow and deliberate and I gave up by halfway. I guess that his other books must be a whole lot better than this given his following but this one was not for me.

I am grateful to Orion Publishing Group for this ARC

This is a tightly-scripted thriller with rather interesting characters and a great setting. It is dotted with some nice little details that enhance the novel's atmosphere and lend it a more authentic vibe.

There is some commentary about being a writer and the publishing industry. You mileage will likely vary on this point, but I found it interesting if less insightful than Korelitz's The Plot.

Despite its merits, I have two main gripes with this book.

1. The final reveal goes a step too far beyond what is believable for no particularly good reason.
2. The character set is almost uniformly homogeneous. With a couple of exceptions, all characters given a description are white, blond, with blue eyes. This is held in a few points in the novel as an archetype for beauty. Only two characters don't fit this mould: a North African thug who 'corrupted' a white woman, and a firefighter mentioned tangentially at the end of the book. I don't normally notice this in novels, but it was so obvious here that I sometimes had the impression I am reading a book written in the 19th century.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

The author's writing wasn't for me and I couldn't finish it. I gave up at 40%. I had really thought I would enjoy it after reading the blurb. But this is on me. The story development wasn't very interesting either and couldn't hold my attention.

Reclusive author Nathan Fawles walked away from fame and now lives on a secluded island in the Mediterranean. Aspiring author Raphael tracks him down but Fawles is not welcoming, until Fawles needs Raphael's help. He has been visited by a beautiful Swiss journalist who tells him that they have met before. Suddenly Fawles life is turned upside down and the secrets he has kept for twenty years are about to be exposed.
This is such a clever book. At first it seems like a very lightweight novel with no crime and a sense of cosiness, then suddenly everything changes and the story becomes really dark. It is beautifully written with the tension ratcheted up and several twists to a complex tail.

After publishing three cult novels, author Nathan Fawles retired from writing at age 35 to live on a remote island, Beaumont, in the Mediterranean. Twenty years later he still hasn’t written another word and doesn’t plan to. His refusal to give interviews or explain the reasons behind his decision only makes him more appealing to his fans and rumours and speculation about his life are rife. Fortunately he’s lived a quiet life in his impressive three-level villa constructed against a cliff and his privacy has always been respected by the island’s inhabitants.

Full review: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2021/09/04/the-secret-life-of-writers-guillaume-musso/

Thank you to @wnbooks and @Guillaume_Musso for this advanced copy of The Secret Life of Writers in return for an honest review. The Secret Life of Writers was published on 22nd July 2021 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Nathan Fawles has celebrated a successful writing career. In 1999, with three very popular novels under his belt, he decided to drop it all and vows that he’ll never write again. He moves to the remote island of Beaumont and lives a solitary life.

In 2018, Swiss journalist Mathilde Monney arrives on Beaumont and is determined to delve into Nathan’s sudden decision to step away from the literary world and secure the first interview with him in twenty years. The same day that she arrives a woman’s body is found on the beach and this sets off a series of events that blur the lines between truth and fiction.

General Thoughts 🤔

This was a relatively short read (although it took me quite a bit of elapsed time to read it) and there was a lot that happened in such a short space of time. I have to say that by the end of it, I really was questioning what was real and what was fiction. I still don’t know and I think that was a really interesting spin on the story.

What I particularly liked about this book was the setting. The way that the author described the island of Beaumont made it sound so beautiful, I could picture myself there as I was reading. It sounded like the perfect retreat for a writer which is ironic given that Nathan had decided to never write again.

Characters 👬👭👫

Due to the length of the book, I don’t feel like I had the opportunity to get particularly close to the characters, however some of them did strike a chord with me.

I liked Nathan a lot even though he came across as mean, anti-social and rude. It was obvious to me early on that he hadn’t just woken up one day and decided to quit writing for no reason. He was harbouring a lot of sour feelings and I thought it was unfortunate that he wasn’t able to share those with anyone. It did make a lot more sense at the end though.

I had mixed feelings about Mathilde. At first I thought she was a devious journalist trying to get a scoop with complete disregard for other people’s feelings and privacy. As the story started to unfold I realised that there was so much more to her character and her story and I started to empathise with her.

Writing Style ✍️

I really liked the way that this book was structured. It was almost like each chapter was broken down into mini chapters. I am always a fan of smaller chunks of stories as I feel like it keeps me engaged and makes me want to read more and faster.

As I alluded to, I really liked the twist in this book that made me question everything that I had read before it. What was real? What was fictional? Which characters were genuine and which were added for dramatic effect? Such a fantastic way to make the reader think hard about what they have read.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

Overall I thought that this was a great short read. I wish that I had had the time to sit down and read it in one go as I think I would have been even more engrossed in it than I was. Books that leave the reader confused can sometimes leave me feeling a little bit frustrated, but The Secret Life of Writers didn’t make me feel like that and I put that down to some brilliant writing from this author.

I loved the story and the setting for this book. I really felt like a part of the island of Beaumont. A brilliant story full of secrets and past relationships.

WOW. fantastic read. Full blown thriller where nothing is what it seems. I read Reunion but, IMHO, this is better. A mysterious writer who has given up the craft only to isolate himself on Beaumont Island. The people determined to find his secret. A dead girl. Sublime.