What I'm reading ...

I have started Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey, which was recommended by a friend and is my next book club choice. Here’s the blurb:

Meet Maud.
Maud is forgetful. She makes a cup of tea and doesn't remember to drink it. She goes to the shops and forgets why she went. Sometimes her home is unrecognizable - or her daughter Helen seems a total stranger.
But there's one thing Maud is sure of: her friend Elizabeth is missing. The note in her pocket tells her so. And no matter who tells her to stop going on about it, to leave it alone, to shut up, Maud will get to the bottom of it.
Because somewhere in Maud's damaged mind lies the answer to an unsolved seventy-year-old mystery. One everyone has forgotten about.
Everyone, except Maud . . .

Nora Webster - by Colm Tóibín

This book was a straightforward, comfortable read. I have read some of the author’s other work, which I found a little gloomy, but this one was more uplifting. Essentially it is an account of the lives of Nora and her family over a few years following her husband’s death. What it is really about is her process of coming to terms with her loss and embracing her new life. The story has no big surprises, no major U-turns and no real drama - it is much like real life.
Initially I was dissatisfied with the ending, but I quickly realized that the message was “life goes on”. It may be a different life. It may be a better life. But it goes on whatever.

What I'm reading ...

I have started Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín. This is my next book club selection. I have read some of this author’s work before and found it somewhat gloomy. He seems to have become more well known lately, after the release of the film of his book Brooklyn. Here’s the blurb:

It is the late 1960s in Ireland. Nora Webster is living in a small town, looking after her four children, trying to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. She is fiercely intelligent, at times difficult and impatient, at times kind, but she is trapped by her circumstances, and waiting for any chance which will lift her beyond them.
Slowly, through the gift of music and the power of friendship, she finds a glimmer of hope and a way of starting again. As the dynamic of the family changes, she seems both fiercely self-possessed but also a figure of great moral ambiguity, making her one of the most memorable heroines in contemporary fiction.
The portrait that is painted in the years that follow is harrowing, piercingly insightful, always tender and deeply true. Colm Tóibín's Nora is a character as resonant as Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary and Nora Webster is a novel that illuminates our own lives in a way that is rare in literature. Its humanity and compassion forge an unforgettable reading experience.

The Post-Birthday World - by Lionel Shriver

Bottom line: this was among the best books that I have read in a while. The story is not overly complex, but very well crafted. The structure of the book was intriguing. At the end of the first chapter Irina has to make a decision, which can go two different ways. Each subsequent chapter describes the events in two different universes in which each possible decision was enacted. It sounds confusing, but [for me, anyway] is actually quite straightforward to follow. I was fascinated to find out how the two threads might be brought together at the end of the book. The answer is: brilliantly.

The characters in the book are well drawn and the overall quality of the writing is excellent. The author thoroughly succeeds in her intention to make the readers think about the consequences of decisions in their lives. I will certainly be returning to this author’s work and I am rather tempted to pre-order her next book, which will be published in a few days.