On Sal Mal Lane By Ru Freeman
Synopsis:
The four Herath siblings, along with their parents – the father a government employee in Sri Lanka and the mother a school teacher – move into a house On Sal Mal Lane in the southern parts of the country in the year 1979. This story is about them, about how the entire lane seems to find a new lease of life, how the people in the lane and their lives slowly start to revolve around them and how they all influence each other. But there is a simmering discontent which is sometimes evident within the thoughts of some of the residents of the lane and also in the country. A story, which while limited to the lane it is named upon, contains a history of ordinary people in the years leading up to the beginning of the Civil War from 1983.
Review:
I’ve started a new trend of reading for myself, I begin a book with the end pages. Nope, not spoiling it, just to check whether there is something else other than Acknowledgement and a Note on the font. And there was a Glossary there, which I can refer to while reading the book!
I read this story in fits and starts, the reason it took me close to four months to finish reading it. But, this story will always remain close to my heart and deserves all the hype that I can create for it. A story of innocence, of children growing up, of events beyond anyone’s control; a story of wonderful dreams and dashed hopes; amidst the clamour of civil war. A story where class and caste differences are attempted to be understood through the eyes of innocent children who are trying to understand the complex world that the adults inhabit. A world that the latter, having left behind their days of innocence, seems to unnecessarily complicate.
… melodious voice … It lifted and cuddled its consonants and aired its vowels…
What a beautiful and poignant story this was! A historical fiction spread over five years – from 1979 to 1983 – it starts with a prologue. On 5 May 1976, the narrator brings forth a short history of the country that is Sri Lanka. And the numerous conflicts that plagued the nation. But all of it is to be told from the perspective of everyone who lived on Sal Mal Lane. Even if they may be insignificant people in the grand scheme of a nation, they too share the same history and are affected by it.
After the epigraph, the first thing that you see is a map of Sri Lanka followed by a pictorial depiction of Sal Mal Lane accompanied by a list of the members of the families inhabiting houses on both sides of the lane, which helped in visualising the setting while reading the book. The prologue itself promised a wealth of writing. Especially the way the narrator introduces itself at the end, in the first person. Yes, itself. Sounds bewildering? It did to me too. Every year has a few chapters with titles that indicate what is to come in those chapters.
It is far easier to be everything and nothing than it is to conceal love.
In the early days of 1979, the Sinhalese Buddhist Heraths moved into the only empty house On Sal Mal Lane. Named after the grove of sal trees at the very end of the lane, what made this stand out was the way the children of the lane were at the crux of the story. This first chapter set the tone for the entire novel. Yes, the Sinhalese Buddhist is a necessary bit of information since the novel, among other things, involves the gradual escalation in tensions between the Tamils and the Sinhalese.
Reading a book from a culture other than mine is always such a wonder. Getting to know their homegrown remedies, their foods, their festivals, etc. It also brought home the fact of how children don’t care at all about caste equations, religious standing, or social classes.
He felt burdened by the weight of all his learning, which, he knew, came with the corresponding responsibility to seize any opportunity to correct …
The omniscient narrator appears from time to time, giving us a hint of something that possibly might have led to the events in the future. As the story unfurls, behind the prim and proper facade of Mrs Herath lies an unyielding persona that sometimes doesn’t even stop to consider her children’s happiness. This story reaffirmed how kindness and music can go a long way in uniting humanity. The author’s way of narration, how she started with a simple enough tale about a neighbourhood, weaved in the national Tension (with a capital T) which was simmering before the full blowout, and her subtle hints about how it would be in the future even if it seemed all happy and gay at present, was magnificent. The writing is lyrical, it rolled off my tongue and settled deep in the crevices of my heart.
The writing was a revelation, especially when other characters were also given a voice, albeit briefly. I was amazed at the author’s use of wordplay, where through the children’s activities, she drew a picture of the country and the events to come.
It was the sort of trouble that would soon overflow its banks and flood the nation, turning the small ponds of concern and occasional tears of Sal Mal Lane into their own tributaries of discontent.
The last few pages made me weep. For all the things lost, for all the promises unfulfilled. A senseless loss, which spiralled into more grief and acts which beg the question, when does it all end? Certainly not with the epilogue.
This was a tough review to write, and I can only imagine how Ru Freeman was able to pen down this story. Even after so many words, I still haven’t covered what all this book was about. I can only request you all to please read this book!
P.S. I borrowed a paperback copy from the local branch of the Delhi Public Library.
This is also my entry for Prompt 15 of the Reading Women Challenge 2019: A book written by a South Asian author.
Also, in keeping with the trend, here is what I would call the Playlist of this book:
Brahms 3 Intermezzi op. 117
Debussy’s Arabesque no. 2
Brahms 6 pieces op. 118 Ballade in G Minor
Chopin Ocean Waves Etude op. 25 no. 12 HQ
Bagatelle in A Minor, op. 59, Für Elise
Chopin Nocturne no. 21 in C Minor
Piano Sonata no. 14 in C-sharp Minor, op. 27, no. 2
Fernando by ABBA
Out of the Blue by Michael Learns to Rock
What’s Forever For by Michael Murphy
Under the Boardwalk by the Drifters
Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
Yellow Submarine by the Beatles
Tennessee Waltz, the Anne Murray version
Kalu Kella Mamai
Originally posted on:
Shaina's Musings 9781555976422 This was a slow book for me--which isn't a bad thing at all--I'm just used to reading faster. Some of my favorite books including English Patient, Possession, Middlesex were slow reads too. I think sometimes it's good for a reader to be forced to slow down a bit.
This one started off slow, as the first part of the book is more character-driven than plot driven. By the last third or so, it's definitely plot-driven and the story moves more rapidly--and this, in my opinion, was the strongest part of the book. This is such a sad, beautiful book and the children of Sal Mal Lane really make it special. It's a powerful book about community, religion, and how people come together (or don't) in the face of tragedy and war.
I am grateful that Freeman included a list of characters at the beginning because even in the last pages I had to stop to see which family one of the kids belonged to (and my hunch was right.) If I had one wish for this book, it would have been a focus on fewer characters' stories. I suppose Devi and Nihil really were the primaries, but there were a lot of different people and stories competing for space throughout. I suppose my secondary wish was that I knew more about the history of Sri Lanka. You don't have to in order to appreciate this beautiful book, but I think I would have understood some of the unspoken intricacies better.
I get to meet Ru Freeman at a Booktopia event in June and I am so excited to talk about this book and hear her read from it. 9781555976422 This novel is set in Sri Lanka from 1979 to 1983, a time of civil unrest and revolution on this island nation. At the center of Freeman’s tale is the Herath family and their neighbors on a short street, Sal Mal Lane, in the nation’s capitol Colombo. In telling their story, Freeman is able to show on multiple levels the growth of societal dischord in Sri Lanka. Much of the book concerns the children of Sal Mal Lane and their relationships with one another. Their interactions can be distilled into a series of parables for the adult reader to ponder. The overall message seems to be that both good and evil are a part of our world and each will show itself over time. This quote from an adult neighbor talking to Nihil, one of the Herath children, speaks to this point, “People do not go to war, Nihil, they carry war inside them. Either they have war within them or they don’t have it. The thing to think about is do you and I have war inside us?”
This is a book to savor in small sips, like a fine wine. The reader needs to go slowly so as not to miss too many of the life lessons that Freeman has provided.
9781555976422 Sal Mal Lane is a dead end street in the capitol of Sri Lanka. On that street live people of different religions and ethnicities: Sinhalese, Tamils, Burghers, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Lansis. So far, on the surface they get along but a storm is brewing in the country and, with authorial intrusion, we know that things, will turn violent with time.
The children of Sal Mal Lane are the focus of this delightful novel. The Heruth children star in this book. There is Rashmi who is perfect in her studies and a perfectionist in every way. Devi has finally attained good grades after a time of rebellion and opposition. “She is innocent, spoiled, impetuous, loving, a free spirit, vulnerable.” Nihil can see words forward and backwards and he is prescient of Devi’s future. Suren is a musical prodigy who wants to make his life in music despite his parents wanting him to become an engineer.
On the outskirts of the central characters are Sonna, a ‘bad boy’; Raju, a simple man; the twins who are impoverished; and other children who live on the lane.
The Herath parents are quite political and stand to the left of center. Mr. Heruth has been involved in a strike that has gone awry with failure but he keeps fighting for the Tamil minority. As he fights, the country goes more and more towards the Sinhalese with everything written in their language or English. “Around the city, the rumors continued. Rumor had it that the Tamil language would soon be banned altogether, that Tamil shopkeepers were erasing the Tamil from their signs, that Tamil politicians addressed everybody in English and did so out of fear. “
The children will find themselves looking into a world they don’t understand, one that is filled with discord, pain and uprising. I found out a lot about Sri Lanka, a country that was quite foreign to me. Ru Freeman does a wonderful job of educating the reader and her writing is very interesting, coming from childrens’ perspectives as it does. I recommend this book for people who enjoy international literature.
9781555976422 4.5/5
I'm not nearly as picky about buying books by women of color as I am about nearly every other demographic. Indeed, I believe I paid full bookstore price for this particular copy, purchased alongside The Moor's Account that may have also not even been on my TBR before it found its way onto my physical shelves. It's not as if I've never been disappointed by such whimsical, WOC oriented purchases, but that my past reading is still so woefully lacking in such voices that they deserve all the chances that they can get, period. It's what lead to this work, not on any of my GR friend's shelves, not on any famous lists or name drops, crossing my path and discovered to be lovely, lovely enough that I wouldn't mind a sequel, or a trilogy, or more time spent in the maturation of a neighborhood in a country I had never, to this point, read a book credibly set within. I likely won't be paying full price for another work of Freeman's unless the book buying itch becomes exceedingly bad, but I will be keeping an eye out for others. The ending was a tad too drenched in pathos to make the reading of the work necessary, but it's close enough for me to wish more would take it on for a casual stroll.
For what was the worth of being a genius if choice was denied to him? After all, fools were always told what they should do and they were foolish because they obeyed.The call of an unknown literary place setting, plus the author's credibility in rendering said setting, plus (admittedly) the pleasing cover art, all worked towards my choosing for purchase this book for the full jacket price. Freeman is an author oft given to soft touches of omniscient foreshadowing, which made for a beautifully haunting opening of overarching grace but admittedly was laid on a little too thick at times, especially during the penultimate forty or so pages. Despite this, there is real beauty and real rendering of the complicate politics of identity and economics, and the kindness of characters just makes their ingrained stigmatization of one another all the harder to bear as the stereotypes burgeon and the hatreds foment. Long as this book is, it wasn't long enough to carry all of the cast's dramas from a satisfying beginning to a satisfying end, especially in the case of the murder suicide that occurs just before the pages begin and that of all the children left behind to become adults once the pages are done. As I stated earlier, I would be happy to read a sequel, but other works by Freeman are more than welcome to cross my path. The tone she evokes of coming together and, more importantly, doing the painful work of coming together that is necessary in these blighted times of ours, and while the omniscient point of view isn't as vital, it's pleasing to see someone harken back to a style of Mary Ann Evans, one that isn't afraid to step into the mind of various others and lay bare, with sympathy as well as truth, all that lays within.
He was no longer the good boy who did what was expected, he was the boy who knew the power of promise and whom he could hold hostage by the mere threat of refusing to live up to it.I have to find more books like this one in the future, if for nothing more than to credibly fill in the blanks of my literary landscape. I often criticize the overuse of pathos, but it is a sin only when it dehumanizes for the sake of its constructed tragedy or bliss, and OSML does nothing of the sort, or does so little that I'd need a history on Tamil & Sinhalese & Sri Lanka to find it. I would be a task that I would willingly undertake, as the current landscape of cynicism and copied emotional displays makes it near impossible to cultivate a generation with critical values that knows the difference between the murder and the murdered and when it spirals out into a revenge tragedy that will either end in compassion or the void. I don't know what awaits the coming years, for the end of 2016 marked a reign of stagnation on the edge of a cliff that persists to this day, and the molasses of distraction threatens to succeed in luring me away to attend to trivialities while we all finally tumble off. Dark thoughts to associate with such a triumph of contemporary literature, but one cannot appreciate the wholesome without having experienced something of the banality of evil.
And in those moments he would feel that he was neither full of war nor full of peace, he was simply lost.9781555976422
A tender, evocative novel, in the tradition of In the Time of the Butterflies and The Kite Runner, about the years leading up to the Sri Lankan civil war.
On the day the Herath family moves in, Sal Mal Lane is still a quiet street, disturbed only by the cries of the children whose triumphs and tragedies sustain the families that live there. As the neighbors adapt to the newcomers in different ways, the children fill their days with cricket matches, romantic crushes, and small rivalries. But the tremors of civil war are mounting, and the conflict threatens to engulf them all.
In a heartrending novel poised between the past and the future, the innocence of the children—a beloved sister and her overprotective siblings, a rejected son and his twin sisters, two very different brothers—contrasts sharply with the petty prejudices of the adults charged with their care. In Ru Freeman’s masterful hands, On Sal Mal Lane, a story of what was lost to a country and her people, becomes a resounding cry for reconciliation. On Sal Mal Lane
Free read On Sal Mal Lane
God was not responsible for what came to pass. People said it was karma, punishment in this life for past sins, fate. People said that no beauty was permitted in the world without some accompanying darkness to balance it out, and surely these children were beautiful. But what people said was unimportant; what befell them befell all of us.
3.5 stars
Sal Mal Lane is a cul-de-sac neigbourhood in Sri Lanka. A community of neighbours of varying classes, caste and ethnicities, all appear to live in harmony. When the Herath family move in, they cause quite an uproar. Being viewed as friends by some and as enemies by others, the Herath family settles in. As the children of Sal Mal Lane play music, cricket and interact, Civil War looms, slowly fracturing the seemingly peaceful neighbourhood.
This is another tough book to rate for me. I wanted so badly to love this book and while there are many great and beautiful elements in this narrative, as I whole, I found it to be too much. Sal Mal Lane is a neigbourhood of Sinhalese, Tamils, Burghers, Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Lansis, all seemingly living peacefully side-by-side. The arrival of the Herath family seems to upset this balance. Of different castes, ethnicities and economic situations, the children of all the families are the focus. As they get interact and get along (or not get along), they bridge some some gaps and create others. Tensions are ever present and only rise when war slowly looms, forcing the people in this community to become vigilant and choose sides. First off, the prose is just magnificent and almost poetic and the concept is fantastic. Where I struggle is with the amount of characters and events. I had difficult time keeping track of who belonged to which family and what caste/class they were and why they did/did not get long with a specific neighbour. A basic knowledge of the Sri Lanka civil war is needed prior to reading this book (which I did not have) otherwise many events will not make any sense. The plot moved at a too slow pace. At times, reading this book felt like a chore. Hardly the worst book I have read but one that I did not entrely love.
It was a we [that the Silvas] liked to imagine exited, if things came to that, though it could be argued that the very existance of the idea was proof that such a division into a we and a them was not far from fact.
Without a doubt, the main theme of this book is unity and looking past our established divisions. I love that Freeman focused on the children for their inherent innocence of in matters such as caste or race. The final third of the book most strongly drove this point home and was by far the best part of the entire book. The devastation and tragedy were tangible but more so were the friendships forged through war. I love the sentiment behind this book and would have rate it higher were it not for the above mentioned issues. Still, I am glad to have read this book. When it comes to humanity there should not be a we or a them , there should be an us . Despitr my reservations, I would still recommend this book. 9781555976422 I remember seeing a very favorable review in the NY Times for this novel, and having a smug moment in which I congratulated myself for being the kind of person who reads world literature, and put this on my reserve list at the library. Then when it actually came, my reaction was more like Oh. This. It seemed very daunting once it was in hand because I don't know anything about Sri Lanka, and besides, there was a new Patrick Ness coming out, and a new Gentlemen Bastards, so I had THINGS to do.
It ended up being really great. It reminded me a little of To Kill A Mockingbird, not in style or tone, but because of the device of framing social, cultural, and political issues with the goings-on of a bunch of little kids. In this case, the issues are all related to the conflicts between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the early 80s.
Going into the book with zero knowledge about these events, I was worried it would be difficult to follow, but the book was impressively designed to keep the threads moving along in an easy way, especially for ignorant people such as me. And it's a lot of complicated history and issues. The other side of this coin is that some of the secondary characters feel a bit stock ... but I'm not quite convinced that's a criticism because it felt like a deliberate choice on the part of the author to assist less familiar readers with staying engaged.
My personal strategy was to read about 1/3 of the book to get the general gist of what was going on, and then I took a break for some googling of the various historical incidents and political events being referenced. Okay, strategy makes it sound like I did that on purpose, when it was more like the timing worked out that way, but I would recommend it to anyone who would like an introduction or refresher on the issues surrounding the Sinhalese majority or the Tamil minority (and then the religious minorities within each group) of Sri Lanka.
Because so much of the book is spent with the various, somewhat dreamy, adventures of the children of the families who live on one small residential street, there was something about it that reminded me of The Penderwicks, had The Penderwicks been written for adults and set against a backdrop of race riots. The writing here is lovely, and achieves that same effect of creating a children's world that feels both idyllic and realistic.
I have one quibble, which is a tiny part of the book, and I realize it seems like the most complainy, nitpicky thing in the entire world, but for some reason it nagged at me a lot. The events of the book are very clearly set in certain years; they are labelled, that is how clear it is. And one of the things the kids do is listen to pop music on the BBC. Now, I realize the author is a young person, and I'm sure all 80s music is the same to her, but there were a few specific songs mentioned that didn't come out until a few years later. Maybe this wouldn't matter so much to me in a book where the point was to present the 80s in a general sense, but because the plot of this book is so closely tied to real life political events, the progression of the years in the lives of the kids seems more important to me.
9781555976422 In Ru Freeman's On Sal Mal Lane, several families live on a quiet lane in Columbo in Sri Lanka in the years just before and during the political upheaval, riots and deaths of the early 1980s. One family lacks rancor and is filled with music, sincerity, with hopes and dreams. Anther family is fueled by anger and alcohol, with unspoken yearning.
As these and other families who call Sal Mal Lane home celebrate their holidays, share food and games, and bring each other into their lives, missed opportunities as seemingly trivial as gifts of strawberry milk and chocolate become harbingers of heartbreak.
The world of the quiet street changes with the arrival of the Herath family, which sings together gathered around the piano. The music is an important unifying factor throughout the novel. It draws people to the four children -- oldest son Suren who lives and breathes music, oldest daughter Rashmi who is the perfect child at school, son Nihil who adores cricket but not as much as he adores and worries about protecting the youngest, daughter Devi, a carefree, lively child.
One of the beauties of this novel is that these children are genuinely dear souls. Their mother is a teacher who has naturally high expectations. Their father, a government worker, is akin to a less biting Mr. Bennet who doesn't regret his marriage while hiding behind his newspapers. Their neighbors, the Silvas, consider themselves the top family of the lane. They're stuffy but not overbearing. Their two boys are not allowed to play with the Bolling girls.
The Bollings are an extended disfunctional family of a physically damaged, angry father, a teenage son, Sonna, who is the neighborhood bully and who will break a reader's heart, and two younger unkempt, flighty daughters who are drawn to the Heraths. Their friendship brings into the circle the Bolling children's uncle Raju, a mentally and physically challenged man who remains childlike and who lives with his mother. Raju adores the children, especially Devi. And Devi adores Raju because he is the only grown-up who never tells her what she is supposed to do and not do.
In another house, the Nerath children take piano lessons from Kala Niles, the grown-up daughter who still lives at home. Her mother is one of the homemakers on the lane. Old Mr. Niles and Nihil become fast friends through their love of cricket and books in one of the lovely relationships forged in this novel.
There are sweet friendships among people who often don't have anything to do with each other in other circumstances. The Bolling girls love being with the Heraths, who, instead of being uptight, welcome them into their home. One Silva boy develops a crush on one of the Bolling girls, and they dream of going to Australia one day where their differences won't matter. The Niles family blossoms when the Heraths come with their music.
And then there is Sonna. He's the tough guy of the neighborhood. He is the one everyone fears, because he will attack. It's what he learned from his angry, bitter father who was hurt in a car crash before Sonna's very eyes while trying to go off to carouse with a buddy. But the Herath children cast their spell on him, too. They refuse to see that there is an evil person in Sonna, no matter what cautions the other neighbors give them. The missed opportunities of trying to give presents back and forth are symbols of the missed communication that can heal and strengthen personal relationships when successful, but which are bittersweet when they are not.
Despite the grownups' best efforts, outside political forces come into the lane. There are Tamil and Sinhalese, Hindu and Catholic families, Buddhists and Muslims. Far too many of the people on the lane fear and hate because they feel they are supposed to do so. One family retreats when the troubles come; the family members hurt only themselves.
Homes are attacked and people gather together. The relationships that have been formed don't all hold, but enough of them do to show that even in the face of the world as they know it falling apart, people can still be good to each other and true to themselves. Just as missed opportunities are bittersweet for the children, it leads one to wonder what missed opportunities might have helped the political situation from disintegrating.
In the aftermath, after a haunting chapter in which another street still stands only as ashes that will collapse to the touch and which the only living thing left is not saved, people slowly try to return to the lives they once led. Then tragedy strikes. There is enough foreshadowing early on that it is not hard to tell who something will happen to, but there is such strong storytelling that even knowing does not take away the powerful emotional impact when that something comes.
The personal and the political are woven together so finely in this novel that they do not strain against each other, but bolster the telling of the two aspects of what the Sal Mal Lane neighbors face and feel. Information needed to know why it's important to know who is Sinhalese and who is Tamil is presented clearly and in time to be useful. Freeman is both a journalist and novelist, so she knows how to deliver the small noticings that reveal character, and the sweep of politics that change a country.
9781555976422 This is a compelling -- and intimate -- story of neighbors on a small lane in a small town in Sri Lanka. It's a mixed neighborhood with Tamil, Sinhalese Buddhist, Catholic, Muslim and Burgher families living side by side, gossiping, squabbling at times, watching their children interact and grow up. The story runs from 1979 to 1983, as ethnic tensions in the country gradually enmesh them as events move toward ethnic strife, sudden communal violence and civil war.
The book will require the reader's close attention. While the human interactions are universal, the cultural references (the author provides a small and handy glossary at the back) need bearing in mind, and the cast of characters is fairly large -- their characters are vivid and varied enough so that they're hard to keep straight. These are people the reader can care about, but the lane also seems to be a microcosm, a symbolic prelude, told in one lane, leading to twenty-six years of civil war.
Recommend. 9781555976422 On Sal Mal Lane examines the tensions in Sri Lanka in the years leading up to the Civil War (1979-1983) through the lens of the inhabitants of Sal Mal Lane, especially the children. I found that this was a really effective way to tell the story and while there are dark times there are also moments when kids are just being kids and discovering who they are and who they hope to become. I think that helps the book to be more universal in its themes.
The novel has a third person omniscient point of view so we get to know all of the main players but it focuses on the views of the kids of Sal Mal Lane, particularly the Herath children: Suren, Rashmi, Nihil, and Devi. The story starts out with the Heraths moving into their home and the reactions of the various neighbors, most notably the Silvas who, like the Heraths, are Sinhalese Buddhists. Unlike the rest of the families on the street, the Silvas have this attitude of us vs. them towards those who are not Sinhalese.
While the Silvas have that negative attitude towards Tamils and anyone else not like them in ethnicity or religion, the other neighbors are mostly helpful and friendly with each other (with the exception of Sonna Bolling and occasionally his hot tempered dad). They respect each other and they all seem to love the Herath children and look out for them. It is really nice to see the sense of community in the midst of the growing strife. Some of my favorite scenes in the book involved the ways that the characters came together to celebrate a holiday or helped each other in some way. These scenes of peacefulness made the chaos and destruction of what was to come that much more jarring.
Even though the third person omniscient point of view can create a feeling of distance between the reader and the characters, I did not find that to be the case for me. I was able to connect with the story emotionally and I loved some of the characters like Devi, Raju, and Mr. Niles. Devi brought so much joy to her family and the community and Nihil was such a protective brother. The Herath kids all seemed to touch the lives of the people around them and I was particularly touched by the way Raju grew because of their friendship. Even some of the unlikable characters had depth to them which I appreciated, especially Sonna. I couldn't completely despise him because there were those moments when the reader got to see his vulnerability and pain.
I also loved the descriptions of the food, the culture, and everyday life. I did find myself consulting the glossary at the back to look up unfamiliar terms but I liked learning while I read. There is also a list of characters at the front but I wish that the author had listed which family was Sinhalese, Tamil, or Burgher as that came in to play later in the book and could be confusing to keep track of.
Though I connected with this book on a personal level, I don't think you have to be of Sri Lankan heritage to be moved by the story. Overall I thought this was an amazing book. I wish there hadn't been so much foreshadowing about certain events but other than that I really really liked it. It was an emotional reading experience for me and in a way I was sad when the story was over. I will definitely be picking up the author's other novel, A Disobedient Girl.
9781555976422
