"This is a story about a brother and a sister.
It's a book about childhood and growing up, friendships and families, triumph and tragedy and everything in between.
More than anything, it's a book about love in all its forms."
Sarah Winman's debut novel was my latest monthly bookclub read. The protagonist is Elly and the story spans four decades of her life shared out between Essex, Cornwall and NYC. It is divided into two parts, her childhood and twenty years later as an adult. Colourful characters enhance her daily life: her eccentric family, an aged neighbour, Jenny Penny, who smells of chips and has crazy hair, a Shirley Bassey impersonator and of course the rabbit called God.
Throughout the dark encounters, trials of friendship and different forms of love, her one constant, is her brother, Joe. He has experienced every moment of ectasy and every day of sorrow with her, keeping her untold secret and understanding why she is the way she is.
This isn't a book I would normally choose to read, but I am thrilled that I had the chance to delve into the story that is Elly. I was slightly disappointed with the number of unexplained things, but I suppose those were there for the reader to decide for themselves. All in all a good read and something slightly different.
LMM
xoxo
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