Adrienne Dines

I found this a bit slow-moving at first. Lizzie is the main character; she’s middle-aged, and rather uptight. A younger man called Jim calls into her shop, explaining that he makes jigsaws, and is looking for some local memories...

The story switches between 2006, which is the present day of the novel, and 1969, when Lizzie was a mostly innocent child of ten. She recounts stories of the nuns who taught her, and the day trip they took to the zoo... and there's much that the reader learns through her misunderstandings of other more adult situations.

I had guessed some of the turns of the plot, but not all of them. By the time I was half-way through this book, I was so engrossed I could hardly put it down.

The writing is nicely-paced, and brings out the characters so that I could almost see them. I thought the plotting and gradual revelation of the ‘jigsaw’ of Lizzie’s life was cleverly done. Having said that, it wasn’t a warm and uplifting story, but shocking in places, and quite draining at times.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed it very much and would recommend it to anyone who likes powerful women’s fiction.… (more)

While I did enjoy this book, I have marked it down because I found it confusing in several places; there were rather too many characters who were related to each other down the generations and some family trees in the beginning would have clarified the relationships considerably.
Having said that, the characters were well drawn and very varied, particularly the miserable nun Sister Pius and the more outgoing nun, Sister Agnus.

The action revoles around Kildoran, a small village in Ireland, where a traumatic event in the 1930s is still inpinging on the lives of its inhabitants 50 years later. The cast includes many members of a convent, both before they entered and many years later, when life before the veil seems a distant, sometimes haunting, memory.
As the stories of the various characetrs involved are revealed, it is impossible not to become drawn into the life of this tiny village.

An enjoyable read but not one I would heartily recommend.… (more)