The Lake House by Kate Morton, 2016.

Long and complex novel set in multiple time periods and various locations: Cornwall 1913, 1914, 1931, 1932 and 1933; London 1911, 1931, 1941, 2003 and 2004; Oxford 2003. 

The story plays out over three generations: Constance deSheil and her husband Henri; their daughter, Eleanor and her husband, Anthony Edevane and their daughters, Alice Edevane and her sisters, Deborah and Clementine. In more up-to-date times (2003) a modern life detective Sadie Sparrow, on enforced leave from her job, decides to investigate a cold case whilst staying with her grandfather, Bertie, in Cornwall. The case involves the tragic disappearance of a little boy in the summer of 1933 in a house not far from her grandfather’s home. The house is called the Lake House and exists in a state of suspended animation where everything was left as it was when the family left that long ago summer. The little boy was the only son of Eleanor and Anthony and Alice’s brother.

Alice Edevane in 2003 is a very successful writer of detective stories living in London, has never married and has a personal assistant called Peter. Alice, even at 86, has to let the self-deception that has clouded her vision all her life, roll away so that she can see the past clearly as a startling truth about her mother is revealed to her.

Alice’s mother, Eleanor, is the emotional and moral centre of the novel as the reader realises when the story is finished and the plot unravels. She ultimately decides on the right thing to do after considering everybody involved, indeed the main perspective of the book is a female one.

 Eleanor’s mother, Constance, and the death of her first baby, by the tangling of the umbilical cord round its neck, provide a sub-plot; and the role of Mr Llewellyn and his connection to the family is explained toward the end of the novel. He writes a book about Eleanor as a child called ‘Eleanor’s Doorway’. Apparently the author only realised how the story would end when she was two thirds of the way through the book. 

The main themes of the novel are: missing children (in both senses of the phrase); abandoned houses; abandonment generally; dogged determination and the role of the detective; mistaken identities; adolescence (Alice and her sisters); effects of the war (shell shock and deserters); the hidden depths of family histories. There is also a helpful librarian who provides Sadie with newspaper article, maps and plans during the initial stages of her investigation. 

It is not surprising that this book, usually described as a page turner, has been just as successful as the author’s previous work.

Desire for Chocolate by Care Santos; translated by Julie Wark, 2016.

This novel won the Ramon Lull Prize in 2014 for its author who writes for children as well as for adults and previously studied law.

The book is cleverly constructed with three separate stories about chocolate makers in different epochs linked by a porcelain chocolate pot which was made in the eighteenth century on the command of Madame Adelaide, the fourth daughter of King Louis XV of France. The story is told back to front with the 21^st century story of Max, Sara and Oriol first and begins with the accidental smashing of the pot into smithereens and its painful piecing back together again by Max. The pot belongs to Sara who bought it an old antiques shop in Barcelona many years before. The pot has a chipped spout, no lid and lacks its swizzle stick which would have stirred the chocolate.

The second story is of the illegitimate kitchen maid Aurora who works for a local Barcelona family, the Turulls, and is of the same age as their daughter, Candida.  Aurora  makes a surprisingly good marriage to a local doctor who has a great fondness for opera, whilst Candida Turull marries into the Sampon family. The chapters in this section are named after the operas which Aurora and her husband go to see where, in one of the boxes, is Antoni Sampons, esteemed chocolatier, and his daughter and we learn more about the scandal that surrounds them.  Aurora, accidentally, comes into possession of the chocolate pot which she tries to return to the rightful owners. Small incidents about how the pot comes to be damaged are sprinkled throughout the novel

The third story is about the Marianna, wife of Fernandes, the most famous eighteenth century chocolate manufacturer, who supplies the French court with chocolate and invents a chocolate mill. Marianna is based on the real life figure of Eulalia Gallisans who singlehandedly ran a chocolate shop in Barcelona after her husband died and ran into trouble with the Guilds. She is visited by French representative of Madame Adelaide, Victor Guillot, another historical character. And so we arrive back in time with Madame Adelaide at the court of Louis XV.

There is a helpful list of characters at the end of the novel; also helpful notes explaining some of the technical chocolate terms.

Review copy sent to me by Alma Books

March, Geraldine Brooks, 2005.

Completely different in theme and style from Geraldine Brooks’ bestseller The Year of Wonders this book tells the story of Mr March, the father, in the world famous children’s book Little Women. Set during the time of the American Civil War, though Louisa May Alcott took some liberties with the actual chronology of events, between the Christmases of 1861 and 1862. At the beginning of Little Women Mr March has left to minister to the Union troops in the south leaving his wife with daughters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy alone on Christmas Day. Two thirds of the way through the book Mrs March receives a telegram with the news that her husband is gravely ill, so she leaves to find him. He is returned to the family by the following Christmas. The author has taken this story and turned it inside out by choosing to tell of Mr March’s experiences as a minister in a war zone and his relationship with the slaves he encounters especially one called Grace Clement. He tries to compose letters home to his wife but finds that he cannot tell of the horrific things he finds there so tries to cover it up with hopeful but deceitful words. His life becomes disconnected as his experiences of the war find no echo in the home life of his family.  The reader shares the horrors of battle, an interlude where Mr March becomes a teacher to the slaves on a cotton plantation, then more slaughter of those he has become fond of. After being wounded and suffering from fever he is rescued by one of the female slaves he has helped until he eventually finds safety with a hospital ship in the north.

The novel also fills in some of Mr March’s backstory prior to meeting his wife and describes how he knew Grace Clement from his previous life before the Civil War. The author has a fine ear for the speech and writing of nineteenth century America, both south and north. The book won the Pullitzer Prize in 2005.

The author, though of Australian birth, is a naturalised American citizen and her inspiration for the novel was the discovery of a Union soldiers belt buckle in the courtyard of the Brooks period home. Some critics have referred to the novel as ‘fan fiction’ which is a genre inspired by the famous classic novels of established authors. Other examples of this type are novels based on the works of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters. Brooks denies this, however, and claims that she came to the story through the history of the Civil War and the local history of their home.

The character of Mr March is based on the real figure of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott’s father,  who was a committed vegetarian and abolitionist and who numbered among his friends Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson who feature as lesser characters in the story.

March is Geraldine Brooks’ second novel.