Micro Review 42

 

Still Life by Sarah Winman (Fourth Estate)

This book has been on my radar for quite some time, the pre-publicity led to me adding it to my wishlist a long while ago. Then it was published and *everybody* was raving about it, so in my perverse way I assumed it was overhyped and not something I needed to read instantly.

More fool me - sometimes the hype is right, and when I finally sat down to read this I lost myself in the story for the three afternoons it took me to read.

This is a book that sprawls several decades, including World War Two, and several locations - you'd never think that the slums of the East End could work so well as a setting when compared to Florence but Winman makes this work.

The fortunes of war resonate through the book, and it was nice to see the Italian theatre, rather than Normandy & France, take centre stage. The post war Florence setting opens up other historical events to the plot and I don't think I've read about them before.

In many ways this is a whimsical fairy tale where luck, coincidence and acceptance win through but it is told with such care that it all feels perfectly realistic. It became a world I really wanted to escape into, with a longing to actually meet some of the characters in real life, and yes I did need tissues on a couple of occasions. 

I'm really pleased that I didn't put reading this one off any longer, and it being so good has lead me to read two more books that have been heavily promoted - sadly the curse of the hype returned and both of them made me think 'emperor's new clothes.' The good news is that I've not read any of Winman's other books so I can cleanse my palate with them!