Review also posted in Amazon US & UK and Goodreads.
A beautiful and inspiring semi-autobiographical tale of the real life struggles faced by members of a family separated by time and three generations who somehow and utterly believably manage to cross through the divides of time to console each other during a time of great crisis in each of their lives.
Rose, a young girl aged nine, is suddenly struck with a life-threatening and life changing illness and finds it very difficult to cope with the changes in her life that will be necessary to maintain her survival. Her mother uses the diary, newspaper accounts and her own imagination to tell the story of her great grandfather's tale of survival at sea on a lifeboat during WW2 to make the vital medical procedures a bit easier to bear, stretching the story out into segments and telling it bit by bit.
I'm not usually a fan of novels that jump back and forth between two different time periods but this book was exceptional and time transistions were smooth and seamless and I was equally fascinated and captivated by both the present day narrative of survival and the one from the past.
This book is one that will stay with me in my memory. Really exceptional writing. 5*
Wow, what a fantastic review for this book. I'm not sure either the title or the cover would inspire me to buy it, but your review definitely would...and I shall!
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