Two Tides to Turn - Libroj.org

Lingvo: English

Eldonita je 12-a de novembro 2019 de Independently Published.

ISBN:: 978-1-7919-8120-4

(1 recenzo)

A family ripped asunder. A terrible secret lurks in a thrilling novel of love, grief, and mystery.

Patrick thought his grandfather, John, died before he was born. In later life, he finds out that it wasn't true. For the first five years of Patrick's life, they stayed in the same small village. So why were they kept apart?

Patrick wishes to search the past to find the reason - but only if he can be united with his young daughter first. And that means bringing her home to Scotland. It means journeying to France to take her away from the care of her mother, Patrick's ex-wife.

In 1915, with the war raging in Europe, John is a young man working on the family farm. Not yet old enough to enlist but aware of its looming threat, he meets Catherine. But his attempts at courtship end suddenly when an accident rips …

A family ripped asunder. A terrible secret lurks in a thrilling novel of love, grief, and mystery.

Patrick thought his grandfather, John, died before he was born. In later life, he finds out that it wasn't true. For the first five years of Patrick's life, they stayed in the same small village. So why were they kept apart?

Patrick wishes to search the past to find the reason - but only if he can be united with his young daughter first. And that means bringing her home to Scotland. It means journeying to France to take her away from the care of her mother, Patrick's ex-wife.

In 1915, with the war raging in Europe, John is a young man working on the family farm. Not yet old enough to enlist but aware of its looming threat, he meets Catherine. But his attempts at courtship end suddenly when an accident rips his life apart.

Told in alternate chapters, set, mainly, in South-West Scotland, this is the dramatic story of Patrick, interwoven with John's traumatic life

1 eldono

Stephanie Jane recenzis Two Tides to Turn de R. R. Gall

An ingenious dual-timeline novel

4 steloj

Two Tides To Turn is an ingenious dual timeline novel where the narratives have a link, but do not end up resolving each other which I appreciated as that overly convenient device can often end up ruining a book for me! Instead, here, we have a present day story of Patrick who is trying to get his life back on track after having split up from his French wife, Maria. I couldn't in any way sympathise with the solution he chooses but, after I discovered just how unreliable a narrator Patrick is, this storyline really took off for me. It is wonderfully confusing!

Alternating chapters with Patrick's story is that of his grandfather, John, a young Scottish dairy farmer during the First World War. John's life is defined by a brief meeting with a girl riding a bicycle. She is Catherine and we are encouraged to believe that his determined …

Two Tides To Turn is an ingenious dual timeline novel where the narratives have a link, but do not end up resolving each other which I appreciated as that overly convenient device can often end up ruining a book for me! Instead, here, we have a present day story of Patrick who is trying to get his life back on track after having split up from his French wife, Maria. I couldn't in any way sympathise with the solution he chooses but, after I discovered just how unreliable a narrator Patrick is, this storyline really took off for me. It is wonderfully confusing!

Alternating chapters with Patrick's story is that of his grandfather, John, a young Scottish dairy farmer during the First World War. John's life is defined by a brief meeting with a girl riding a bicycle. She is Catherine and we are encouraged to believe that his determined pursuit of her and its aftermath will have serious repercussions on both his life and that of his descendants. On the face of it, this storyline is beautiful romantic historical fiction and I did very much enjoy Gall's portrayal of 1910s and 1920s Dumfries life, especially his inclusion of lots of authentic details of the farming lifestyle. Across both storylines, Gall's poetic prose is a real treat for the reader. My uncertainty came from the female characterisations though which did seem to fall mostly into the saintly virgin or evil witch trope. John himself is a complicated and nuanced creation so I was a little disappointed that the significant women in his life, Catherine and Renee, didn't feel to have been given the same depth.

That said though, Two Tides To Turn kept me absolutely engrossed from start to finish. It often takes unexpected turns, but always in a plausible manner and I liked the alternating chapter jumps most of the time. Only occasionally had I become so involved in one family that the appearance of the other took me by surprise! I would highly recommend this novel for readers interested in mysteries, twentieth century historical fiction, and stories which aren't exactly as they seem.