The story was interesting and melodic in its writing. However, some parts were difficult to follow and the changes in perspective were not always clear. Often had to re-read parts to try understand what was happening.

Not Even the Sound of a River is a moody and poetic story that moves through generations and familiar trauma and tragedy. The language flows beautifully and is clearly poetic.

“It is a day of high winds, almost warm, but they chase away none of the emptiness that crashed down upon her, they do not drive away the weight of sadness that each minute steals into her flesh”

I found myself repeatedly highlighting passages from this book and actively look into buying a copy for certain people in my life who I feel this would resonate with. The story isn’t very plot driven but with the shortness it works just fine without that driving force. The story is about a woman who looks back at the lives of those before her, through poetry and newspaper clippings, and how she pieces together a story that was never told to her.

The book touches on a real life tragedy but does not feel exploitative or gratuitous in doing so. It feels true to accounts and documentaries I have since looked into about the incident.

This can easily be read in one sitting and at no point was I bored or distracted. It made my train journey go by so quickly.

Sadly, I did not get on with this book. It is very disjointed, jumps about to different timelines, and different perspectives. I really struggled to continue reading, but eventually my patience ran out. A DNF for me, I'm sorry to say.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of the book.

A sombre, atmospheric and very Canadian novella, Not Even the Sound of a River is great if you’re looking for something moody.

This book is very short. I read it in about an hour and a half? Yet, it’s very rich. It follows a woman discovering the mysteries of her mother’s past and basically answers the question for her of why her mom was such a downer and so standoffish. Yet, it’s also about the choices people make when they feel they have no choices and how those choices affect others. While we aren't with the characters for very long, they are depicted with enough skills that you understand their motivations and actions and what compels them. You feel bad for them, mainly, as this book is quite sad at times. It actually has a lot to talk about thematically, but of course, a lot of it is spoilers.

The way the book told this was interesting, as it’s imparted through diaries, newspapers, and a point of view of her daughter that moves from first person to third, which is her almost telling her mom’s story as if she’s recounting to us what she learned in her own words. It’s really well done and draws you in. The flow and pace are very much like the tide - it moves in and out from the present to the past in a non-linear way that keeps things interesting and immersive. You think one thing about the characters, and then you learn something entirely new.

There’s also the inclusion of the very real Empress of Ireland boat disaster that happened in 1914. It’s an absolutely horrific event, as many people died, including most of the children on board. This disaster overshadows the entire story in a way that is a stand-in for generational trauma, as well as literally changing the life of one of the characters. This is a bit of a period piece, which was interesting as well. As much as I love boats and the water, this book is very much not a positive boat/water story. Water, in this case, bears with it pain and sadness.

The language is just lovely. There are so many passages I highlighted on my tablet.

The book also has what I believe were chapter headings (I couldn’t tell because my ebook formatting was wonky), which were lines taken from poems! I love it when books do this, though I wish it’s been more obvious so I could have looked them up as I went along. Even footnotes would have worked.

Overall, a very lovely novella. It told what it needed to tell and did so in a beautiful way. Highly recommended if you like literary historical fiction and want something short.

Not Even the Sound of a River is beautifully written. I did find it hard to follow at times but overall it is a good read.

This was so hard to follow. I'm not sure if it was the lack of formatting or the bouncing from perspective to perspective but I was genuinely lost for a good majority of this book. I think with proper formatting including headlines and stating who's perspective it was in, would have made this better. From what I did understand it was lovely.

Can poems give us a life that we did not have? from Not Even the Sound of a River by Helene Dorion

“I’ll tell stories, for aren’t they what we leave behind?” Hanna affirmed, entrusting “to words this strange adventure so they can give it meaning.”

The first poem she ever heard read “was like a blade tearing the bank of fog that floated inside me.” Words became her reason to live. After her mother’s death, Hanna discovered her mother’s notebooks filled with poetry and remembrances. Hanna was shocked. She never knew that her mother wrote. Her mother had been an intimate stranger.

The letters, journals, and poetry revealed a story Hanna would never have imagined. She knew that her mother was unhappy, remained separate from her and her father. What she discovered was shocking. Her mother’s backstory revealed a soulmate lost, and the horrific loss of life in the sinking of a ship filled with immigrants.

I read this brief novel in one day. This story of living a life after loss, how art aids survival, and how trauma crosses generations is beautifully written.

Poetry is infused throughout the book, starting with the book title, and in chapter titles and excerpts. Dorion offers a Playlist of music that accompanied her writing of the novel.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

This is a new translation of a book originally written in French. Set in French-Canadian Quebec, it is a beautiful meditation on love and the pain of loss carried through generations. Dreamlike in its presentation, its truths are very real.

Hanna, the protagonist, is bereft over the death of a mother she felt she never knew. Her mother, Simone, was physically present and vigilant about keeping Hanna safe, but her mind was always elsewhere. To move on, Hanna needs to understand a mother she knew loved her but was emotionally absent.

Through news clippings, journals, poetic musings and imaginings, Hanna, and her friend Juliette, piece together the lives of both her mother and grandmother. Both women suffered tragic losses when the men they loved died, It set both of them on a path of grief they never recovered from.

The wounds of the past have a way of seeping into the present. This story takes the reader back to a horrific accident that happened around the time of the Titanic. Rather than a luxury liner, this was a ship carrying thousands of hopeful immigrants to Canada. When the ship sank, the deaths left a long lasting impact on the survivors. And the subsequent traumatic road for the characters is set.

This is a lyrical story we can all relate to. Even without having experienced the dramatic events that drive the story, I found it very relatable and a beautiful read.

Highly recommentd.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC!

This was my third French-Canadian read in as many weeks, and definitely the most successful! I admittedly struggled for the first third or so, and given that it’s only 180 pages, this isn’t an insignificant chunk. But once I got adjusted to the characters, I was swept up in the beautiful melancholy of this narrative. It moves between three generations of women, as the youngest learns about her mother and grandmother’s lives, both of whom lost lovers to the water. When I got to the end, I almost wanted to skip right back to the beginning and start again, armed as I was with the context.

My main peeve was that it flits around too quickly. Some of the chapters are a mere page, and then we’re thrown back 70 years - if the storytelling wasn’t so poetic, I’d have whiplash. As it stands, it is a gorgeous little novel that just requires some patience.

I really enjoyed Not Even the Sound of a River! Dorion's writing (and Kaplansky's translation) was just beautiful. Her ability to switch seamlessly between timelines and generations while expressing the lifelong pains of love was just incredible. The novel was just so poetic. This was my first book by Dorion and I'm certain it won't be my last!

This book was very moving. It taught very valuable lessons and made me super emotional throughout. Highly recommend people read this to gain a new look on life!

Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to read this book. This was beautiful. I couldn't put it down from the start.

“How many days do we live?”

A quiet, calm story about family, love and loss. Not Even The Sound of a River encapsulates how maturing is realising how much your mother sacrificed to give in to motherhood, despite their wants and goals. It also portrays how it feels to live a life after love, the soul-crushing, unbearable weight of it all; but above all else it is a tale of how generational trauma seeps through the cracks of our foundations.

I enjoyed the sentiment of this book, however, I sometimes found it hard to follow with the constant perspective and time jumps. I probably would have enjoyed the book more if it were more grounded in its narrative and less metaphorical. I found myself unable to connect deeply with the characters, and at times I was unsure as to who was who.

Despite this, the book is written incredibly elegantly and has some beautiful phrasing throughout. And I believe there is most definitely an audience out there who will connect and relate to this book more than I could.

A poetic book about discovering what happened in the past of older generations of a family and why it had a profound impact on them.

Beautifully written, I really enjoyed reading this book. I felt like the writing drew me in and moved at a good pace.

Thank you Book*hug Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
#NotEventheSoundofaRiver #NetGalley

A gentle, quietly moving novel on love and loss. It highlights how the picture we hold of our mothers and the story we construct for them can be so very different to the reality.

Dorion's writing, and translation by Jonathan Kaplansky, is poetic and lyrical, evoking the flow of the river. I wanted to savour every sentence.