Saddle up and enjoy the ride
THE GIVER OF STARS by Jojo Moyes (Michael Joseph €28, 448 pp)
I LOVED this dashing adventure set in 1930s Kentucky, America. Young English-woman Alice is unhappily married, so when lady volunteers are needed for a horseback lending library, delivering to book starved hill-dwellers, she jumps at the chance.
Other misfits do too, and all become fast friends.
As people start to read, attitudes start to change. Women especially begin to question the status quo.
The librarians are led by Margery, a pistol-packing Calamity Jane-type whose liberal views and bold attitude infuriate some locals, including Alice’s sexist, racist father-in-law. Trouble is clearly building. There’s more than a touch of To Kill A Mockingbird about it all, and when Marge ends up in jail on a murder charge, things hit a dramatic peak.
Intensely moving and crammed with romance and emotion, this is a full-pack-of-tissues novel.
THE LOVE CHILD by Rachel Hore (S&S €23.79, 448 pp)
ALICE (it’s the name of the week!), a nurse in World War I, is pregnant by one of her patients.
She reluctantly gives the baby away for the sake of her future, and goes on to have a groundbreaking career for the time, training as a doctor in London.
Meanwhile, on the Suffolk coast, daughter Irene is growing up. Her adopted mother is unloving and her childhood is lonely.
But once Irene moves to London, her path and Alice’s grow closer. Finally, they meet. But what will Alice’s new family — especially her touchy husband — make of Irene’s sudden appearance?
There’s a lot more to it than this, but you get the idea. I really enjoyed this book. Hore tackles difficult subjects with a clever, light touch and a sunny positivity.
Her women are brave and good and you desperately want them to win.
THREE LITTLE TRUTHS by Eithne Shortall (Corvus €13.99, 400 pp)
THIS novel knocked me for six. Pine Road, Dublin, is a posh street controlled by a WhatsApp group of gossipers whose acerbic exchanges intersperse the chapters.
They’re like a Greek chorus, commenting on everyone’s business and driving the story on.
It centres on three neighbours, all recent arrivals. Fragile, desperate Edie wants to make friends; glamorous, mysterious Martha wants to put the dreadful past behind her; and single mother Robin, who once had the world at her feet, wants to be anywhere but back home with her parents.
They have never met before, but are closely connected in ways they could never have imagined.
This carefully and beautifully written tale, which brilliantly blends tragedy, comedy and romance, explores secret lives behind closed doors and the public faces that people present to the world.
As Noel Coward once said, I couldn’t have liked it more.