For once, I don’t think this was sent for review. I think I won it in a bundle last Christmas. (If I was sent it for review, I apologise. It got put to the bottom of a pile.)
I was slightly mislead by the cover on this one. I expected knitting to feature in the story. It does, but only very briefly. I didn’t hold that against the author, but the image of a dying child – that I can’t get out of my head and we’re a couple of weeks on from the reading now, so I’m starting to feel aggrieved.
Perhaps you’d only fixate on that point if you have children and for any reason you’re anxious about losing them. I don’t know what makes me vulnerable in that area but the idea of losing a child in a way that could be construed as my fault (trying really hard not to go too spoilery here!) that is a tough one. It did colour my whole relationship with the book – which is a shame as in other ways it’s an excellent, intelligent, inventive novel. It tells multiple stories – of families and children in China where oh so often unwanted (or even wanted) daughters have to be given up. It also weaves together the stories of families looking to give new homes to those children. And twisted through them all, the story of the woman who created the agency bringing the two halves together.
There is romance, love, hate, loss, and pain, all brought into acute focus. And yet it’s dignified. Elegant. A very beautifully written novel, with room for the reader if that makes any sense.
But the pain and loss were the parts that stayed with me. Which I don’t think is the intent, I think it is all supposed to be tied together and happy by the end. Perhaps that’s me, rather than the book. I don’t know.
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