published 2014
272 pages
Synopsis from publisher -
When an American woman, Stella Bain, is found suffering from severe shell shock in an exclusive garden in London, surgeon August Bridge and his wife selflessly agree to take her in.
A gesture of goodwill turns into something more as Bridge quickly develops a clinical interest in his houseguest. Stella had been working as a nurse's aide near the front, but she can't remember anything prior to four months earlier when she was found wounded on a French battlefield.
In a narrative that takes us from London to America and back again, Shreve has created an engrossing and wrenching tale about love and the meaning of memory, set against the haunting backdrop of a war that destroyed an entire generation.
My thoughts -
This was a bit of a case of being sold something that wasn't quite what I got. My expectations for the novel were one thing, but the novel itself veered off into a direction that I found did not really serve the purpose of the novel. I felt like the author was holding her readers at a distance from the story, which kept me from ever truly caring about the characters or their motivations. Beautifully written, but it left me cold.
Finished - 9/6/14
MPAA rating - PG-13 for violence of several varieties
My rating - 2/5
1 comment:
Your thoughts on this one aren't very different from what others I know have said about it, which is really disappointing. The premise sounds so promising!
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