Nights of Rain and Stars

This book is lyrical and smooth, lilting might be a good word. Ostensibly, the novel is about four tourists who meet in the Greek village of Aghia Anna and the ways in which their lives intertwine. This thread is certainly part of the story. However, I think that the book is more about community building and the ways in which we create our own realities through constructing fantasies and ideals. The "nights of rain and stars" of the title are one version of Aghia Anna, but through local characters, Binchy allows us to see that, even on this beautiful island, life can be hard and cold. This novel is a gorgeous portrayal of the power of perspective on the human experience. Binchy has written a moving, decisive novel this time.

In Nights of Rain and Stars, by Maeve Binchy, we meet four disparate travelers, all spending time in the tiny village of Aghia Anna in Greece: Fiona from Dublin is traveling with her boyfriend Shane, of whom her family disapproves; German Elsa has fled her high-profile life as a television presenter and her even higher-profile lover Dieter; Englishman David is trying to escape his father's demands that he enter into the family business when he really wants to study pottery and play music; and American Tom is on sabbatical, simultaneously trying to give his young son space to bond with his mother's new husband and desperate to maintain his own bonds with his son. The four of them meet in a taverna run by Andreas, where they all watch in show more horror as a tragedy unfolds in the harbour below, and from that dreadful beginning, new bonds are forged.... This is vintage Binchy, gentle without shying away from horrific events and behaviours, and complete with the sometimes gentle, sometimes acerbic older woman (in this case, Vonni, an Irish woman who has lived in the Greek village for decades) who dispenses wisdom and life lessons at the drop of a hat. As ever, I enjoyed these characters and their stories, although I felt less engaged with them than I have with some of the author's other works; in any event, a gentle and moving book to read in the quiet days of early Fall! show less

Book on CD performed by Terry Donnelly

Five tourists, all from different countries, come together at a small Greek taverna on a hill overlooking the harbor, where they witness a tourist boat fire that results in several deaths. Drawn together by this tragedy they begin to share their lives with one another and with the kind residents of the village. In particular they meet Vonni, an Irish woman who married a Greek man some decades previously and has made her life on the island, Andreas, who runs the taverna and his brother, Georgie who is the local police chief.

Binchy writes ensemble pieces that reflect the ways in which we get to know one another. Strangers are drawn together by location and circumstance, and find common ground where show more they least expect it. In this novel we have the American professor Thomas; German TV news reporter Elsa; David, a young man fleeing the family business in England; and Fiona and Shane from Ireland, she a nurse and he a ne’er-do-well hippie. Sharing a meal, a glass of wine, a bus trip to a different village, a walk on the beach, they reveal themselves little by little to one another and to the reader. If the ending is a little too neatly tied up with a pretty bow, who cares. It’s an enjoyable read and by the end I felt as if I were friends with them and wanted to visit this charming island myself.

Terry Donnelly does a fine job performing the audio version. Her pacing is good and she has enough skill as a voice artist to differentiate the characters. show less

This is another feel-good contemporary fiction by Maeve Binchy. Four strangers meet in a hilltop tavern in Aghia Anna in the Greek Islands. An unexpected tragedy in the village harbour sees them suddenly thrown into each other’s company and their lives begin to intertwine.

Elsa is a beautiful German newsreader who has left her job and come to Greece to escape a relationship which had too many unpalatable secrets. Fiona is an Irish nurse who is travelling overseas to be with her beloved Shane, a difficult man disliked by all of her family and friends. David is from England, where he feels smothered by his Jewish parents and their pressure on him to take on the family business. Thomas is an American university professor on sabbatical, to show more remove himself from the heartache of watching from the sidelines his son’s new life with a stepfather taking the daily parenting role.

The four are graciously cared for by tavern owner Andreas, himself grieving his absent son in America. They also come across the mysterious Vonni, an Irish woman who has made the island her home for decades and seems embedded in the community. Gradually Vonni’s turbulent past comes to the fore, as she makes pointed comments to each of them about the damaged relationships they need to repair, and about the lives they are all running from.

This was as expected for a Maeve Binchy novel, a simple charming read, not too in-depth but pleasant and escapist. There were times when I wanted to shake Fiona when she was blindly scrabbling to devote herself to her boyfriend, the callous bottom-feeder Shane, but overall this was a cosy read. The audio narration by Terry Donnelly was excellent. show less

Nights of Rain and Stars is completely different in that this is a tale that is not set in Ireland, and the characters from different countries and backgrounds are not known to each other. The lives of four strangers, each with a life in turmoil, are forever altered when they meet in the Greek seaside village of Aghia Anna.

The five tourists enter the hilltop taverna owned by the elderly Andreas, for a casual lunch. But a sudden tragedy in the harbour below causes these perfect strangers to become unlikely friends as their lives begin to entwine as they support each other and are supported themselves by the villagers of Aghia Anna.

Fiona left her nursing career in Ireland to follow her own path and be with Shane who has no direction and show more everyone says he is wrong for her, while she feels that they don’t understand him. They are proved right when Shane once again mucks up and ends up in an Athens jail on drug charges. Elsa fled Germany and a high-powered television job once she learned what the man she loved was hiding from her. Thomas mourns his failed marriage and misses his young son in California, while David yearns to reconcile with his family in England without having to go into the family business. Chance has brought them together, and together they will find new ways of looking at the lives they left behind. At the centre of this tale is Vonni who, like these young tourists, left her home country of Ireland to follow the love of her life, Stravos, back to Greece. I felt you really got to know the characters, their troubled lives, and the problems with so many layers and perspectives. As a reader, you hoped that all would come out in the wash and their problems be sorted. At the end this is what generally happens but I was really hoping for a happier end for Vonni. show less

3.5 stars

Andreas owns a small cafe in a small town in Greece. He has a few tourists at his cafe when they watch, from a distance, a tourist boat go up in flames in the water. This brings them all together, as they get to know each other over the few days they spend in Aghia Anna. Irish nurse Fiona and her awful boyfriend Shane; beautiful blonde German tv personality Elsa; divorced American dad Thomas; young English man David. They all have their own secrets and issues, as do some of the townsfolk that they meet.

I love the title of the book! The book itself was enjoyable. There was one part of the ending I wasn’t too crazy about. I didn’t see it coming, and I definitely think I was picturing Thomas differently from how he was meant show more to be pictured! show less

Maeve Binchy writes the type of novel that is so not to my taste - pretty clear good and bad guys; mostly happy endings, fairly obvious plot turns. I really don't like stuff like this. And yet - something keeps bringing me back every few years to pick one up, and I enjoy myself each time I read one of her works, even if I am occasionally rolling my eyes and groaning out loud. I don't know if it's because the recognizable character archetypes are compelling in spite of their familiarity, or whether her strong push to show much of the affection and strength and love that humans are capable of endears her to me, but whatever it is, I know what I'm in for, and I do enjoy it.