My Soul Twin by Nino Haratischvili is the story of the complicated and often destructive relationship between Stella and Ivo. From close childhood friends through a rocky and tempestuous relationship Ivo appears in Stella's life after 8 years of silence with devastating consequences.
They grew close when Stella's Father and Ivo's Mother were having an affair with the young girl being used as part of her Dad's subterfuge. In their teens,with the now orphaned Ivo now having been informally "adopted" by Stella's family, their closeness leads to scandal and family tension. with years of the smitten Stella being rebuffed and badly treated by the seemingly callous and unlikeable IVO.

This is a very involving read with Stella and Ivo's complex relationship at various times in their life being hinted at and leading this reader at least to jump to the wrong conclusions until the truth is gradually revealed, not least the major revelation that has everything falling into place. That dramatic scenario was my only problem with a great book. I had to re-read the big scene a few times to really "get it", to say why would be a major spoiler, I'll just say there was behaviour by one character that I found confusing that ,in my opinion,could have been handled better.

That aside,and it could "just be me",an excellent book and a compelling read.

Won a copy of this on StoryGraph and finally got around to reading it. These characters are so well written!