John Boyne

This beautifully-written saga set in Ireland presents four separate narratives that are interconnected in different ways. All involve some sort of abuse and trauma, and the havoc such events can wreak in a rippling effect from the victims to those around them and even across generations.

There are two male and two female narrators, each having a distinctive style of speaking in addition to their disparate points of view.

Boyne’s prose and storytelling are so adept that you often don’t show more realize how the characters are connected both within and across stories until the end.

Readers will wrestle with their own evaluations of the characters as the story unfolds: To what extent can the past excuse the present? How far should empathy be extended? Is redemption possible no matter how egregious the crimes?

While the topic of abuse is a difficult one, the writing is so good and the complexity of the stories so well thought out that you will be glad you persevered.

Highly recommended for book clubs. show less

Evan Keogh should have the world at his feet, a talented footballer who has represented his country. However, Even has spent his time running away. Away from an aggressive father, a small island that he's grown to hate, from his sexuality and from his past. Now Evan is in the dock, accused of being an accessory to rape, a pariah and a closeted gay man in an intolerant sport.
This is a masterful book. Boyne takes the idea of a tabloid sensation story, a footballer accused of rape and develops show more it in ways that drag the reader in. Evan is a sympathetic lead character, manipulated and tied into a story not of his making, mediocre at what he loves, talented at what he doesn't. It's superficially a story of prejudice but becomes so much more. show less

Water is the first in a set of four novellas, each one focused around one of the elements. It is no less hard-hitting for its brevity. Vanessa Carvin travels to a small Irish island after leaving her home in Dublin and immediately changes her name to Willow Hale, knowing that the islanders will be curious as to why she's chosen to go there and live such a solitary lifestyle. As the story unfolds we learn why she has fled there and the role of water in her narrative.

I was hooked on this book show more from page one and it didn't loosen its grip on me until I turned the last page. It's completely compelling and has an emotional intensity that put me right into Willow's shoes, living an isolated life away from the horrors that she was trying to escape, with the time and space to consider whether deep down she knew what her husband was capable of.

There's so much that is special about Water. An island location is always a hit with me, and in this case it's a very small, closed community that Willow chooses to enter, both perfect for its solitude but potentially inviting interest in why she's there. Willow's relationship with her daughter and the beautiful redemptive exchange with her towards the end of the book was emotive, and I also particularly liked another relationship that she developed during her time on the island.

I don't think John Boyne could write a bad book if he tried. Every one is a triumph in its own right, unique and perfectly formed. I'm looking forward now to reading Earth, which features a minor character from Water, and promises to be just as powerful a read. In the meantime, I heartily recommend Water for its uncompromising and thought-provoking story, and the superb writing. show less

So here’s a another book I can’t adequately review because I adored it too much. But I want to get down something in writing.

I hadn’t been enthusiastic about reading this book, even though it was for my book club and just about everybody I knew who’d read it was pushing it. I’m so glad that I didn’t miss reading it! I loved it. I’m considering it for my favorites shelf and had no quibbles about giving it a full 5 stars.

I enjoyed it from the start yet it was slow going for me show more for a while, and then the more I read the harder it was to put down.

Right from the start, reading only the hardcover edition, I could hear all the Irish accents from the way the Irish characters worded what they said. I loved that.

It’s an exceptionally good book. It’s a masterpiece. A real saga of one man’s life from conception to death, following him every 7 years, a structure that works beautifully here. The story goes from 1945 to 2015, 70 years. (Reading the beginning sections I thoughts of the documentary series 7 Up, a movie series I have loved but this story was better. Not true but it felt true.) I also loved the “bookends” aspect of the story at its beginning and its end. The ending was incredibly satisfying.

The characters seemed like real people. It read as much like an autobiography as it did a novel. I grew to care deeply about quite a few of the characters.

While there are so many sad parts, I did not find it at all depressing. And there were so many times I laughed or chuckled out loud. It has so much humor in it and is very, very amusing. It was tough reading at times but 100% worth it and overall I was so engrossed that I relished the entire book.

I thoroughly enjoyed the settings Dublin and other parts of Ireland, Amsterdam, and NYC. The events in those places and times juxtaposed with the life of one man made for a rich reading experience. Since I’m only 8 years younger than the main character a lot of societal things felt familiar.

This story is deftly and cleverly told. There are so many coincidences that might be laughable, ridiculous or simply unbelievable in a lesser work, but they are worked perfectly here, for me. (It’s a small, small world…)

I wasn’t wild about the last chapter but I think most readers will love it. I attributed certain aspects of it to one character’s imagination and experience with illness and medicine for it but I have a feeling the author meant me to take the experiences at face value. But I find I often do that when I read fiction: make my own interpretation. Here it was a bit difficult because of the way things played out and the reader it left to assume how they will play out. If this book doesn’t make my favorites shelf it is because of how something goes in that last chapter but I would never consider less than a 5 star rating for this book. And I’m probably quibbling unnecessarily.

It usually bothers me when historical fiction books take real events and real people and fictionalize portions of them, but with this book I barely minded at all when that happened and overall I enjoyed it.

I do think a very few period details might be off? Secondhand smoke wasn’t that much of a thing in 1966 in the U.S. so I doubt that it was in Ireland. And unless what was meant was only that one hospital ward or only the treating physician’s patients, there were so many more AIDS patients in NYC that their numbers imply. But almost everything in the book felt genuine.

One thing I took from the book is to define yourself and not let others define you and to not hide yourself but be true to yourself.

I went in with not too high expectations but even if I’d gone in with high expectations, I don’t think they’d have been too high. I loved this book. I am gushing. It’s a rare book that can make me laugh so hard and feel so much as I read.

I highly recommend this to almost all readers. Definitely pick it up and read it if you enjoy reading any of the following: history/historical fiction, sociology, coming of age stories, books about orphans, books about friendships, love stories, books with quirky characters, Ireland, Amsterdam, NYC, biographies because while this is fiction it felt like a biography, books with an abundance of both humor and sadness, LGBTQ books. I want to recommend this to everyone I know who hasn’t read it yet. That’s how much I loved it.

Perfect book for book clubs and buddy reads!!! show less