Mari Strachan

adult fiction (coming of age in small Welsh town amidst "murder" investigation and uncovering of family secrets). Wonderfully-drawn characters, beautifully told sadness and light, plot drags a bit (takes Gwenni an awful long while to figure stuff out, though she IS only twelve at the time).

I rather liked Gwenni as the narrator and her innocence and her naivety. I don't usually like characters like her but I think her curiosity about everything made me really like her.

Kort na de Eerste wereldoorlog heeft een echtpaar uit Wales moeite om de draad van het leven weer op te pakken.
Hey lezen van dit boek is echt zonde van de tijd!!!!!

A lovely debut novel. I imagine this book being kept on the shelf of a summer cottage for adults and youths to pick up and read. It would be just the right tone for vacation. The perspective of a young girl who is inquisitive, intuitive, exquisitely sensitive, and who flies over her town in her sleep is a delightful one. Gwennie is full of questions. Some of the answers are tough to handle, but then again, so is life. Charming and insightful.