Love and Fallout
This book has a great
premise. We first meet Tessa in the present. She's struggling with her life on
a number of fronts. Things aren't going well in her marriage, her relationship
with her daughter is distant and she's not sure that she can keep the charity
she works for afloat.
A combination of events,
starting with a chance meeting in a swimming pool, start Tessa off on a trip
down memory lane to a very different
time in her life. Because, when Tessa was a young
woman she lived as part of a very different family - a group of women at one of
the camps at Greenham Common.
The story alternates
between the two times and we follow Tessa in the present as she tries to save
her marriage and her job, and in the past as she tries to save the world.
I didn't know a huge amount
about Greenham Common when I started to read this book, but I found the story
very vivid and informative. Kathryn Simmonds has obviously done her research,
but it is written with a gentle touch and never feels like the historical facts
are being forced into the story in any way.
The story is beautifully
written in both strands with believable characters and events. The fact that the
reader can see the young Tessa reflected in the older one adds to the richness
of the story.
Eventually the two strands
collide when present day Tessa is contacted by a face from the past. Angela
was the person at the camp who she got on with the least well, so does she
really want to meet up with her again? In the end, Angela's reappearance in her
life affects Tessa in more ways than she could possibly have expected.
I really enjoyed this book,
and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys women's fiction with an additional
dimension to it. So skilful is the recreation of the Greenham Common experience
that towards the end of the book I found myself thinking that next time I saw
footage of Greenham Common on the television I'd have to look out and see if I could
spot Tessa, or Angela, or Jean or one of the other residents of Amber gate.
I think this book will stay with me, not least because the final
paragraph is so poignant it made me catch my breath and hold back tears.
Thanks very much to the author
for a review copy of this book.
You can find out more here.
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