Veronica Hegarty tells what happens after her slightly older brother Liam has committed suicide and what happened in the past, events that may have put Liam on his eventual course of life. Veronica, whose mother had twelve children and seven miscarriages. Whoa.

Is it depressing? A weepy? Not for me. It's real, it's harsh, it's strange, it's about life.

Sublime writing, enjoyable to the last, convincing psychology. No downside whatsoever? Well, maybe Veronica is a bit too adult as a child, but then, it's the adult Veronica looking back through her adult eyes and describing what she sees in her adult voice.

A surprise gift from maupi, over a tea and a beer in OBCZ-Lef in Amsterdam. In the train back to Groningen, I was immediately taken in by the book and read its first 80 pages or so. Phenomenal style! The events described are not happy ones, but I do not find the tone at all depressing so far.

Note January: the book is finished. Extremely well-written. Here's a quote about Ada, the narrator's grandmother, reminiscing in her old age about her late husband Charlie.

If Ada had reached any sort of conclusion in this life, it was a little one. People , she used to think, do not change, they are merely revealed. This maxim she has applied, with the flattest satisfaction, to turncoat politicians, and unfaithful spouses, and wild boys who turned out right in the end. She applies it now to the memory of Charlie Spillane and to his true heart, that only became more intensely, and importantly true to her over the years. If people were only revealed by time, then the man who was revealed to her in Charlie Spillane was endlessly good - just that - with all his evasions and his regrets, his eye for a filly, and for the main chance, the thing that her husband was had burned more clear for her, since he had died.

RELEASE NOTES:

In de kantine van de Bernoulliborg op de eerste verdieping. Deze kantine is gemakkelijk te bereiken door vanaf de hoofdingang van het Bernoulligebouw (die zich onverwacht aan de achterkant van het gebouw bevindt) de met lichten verluchte theatertrap op te schrijden naar de eerste verdieping en daar meteen naar links af te slaan. De kantine is makkelijk bereikbaar zonder etenswaren aan te hoeven schaffen.

Het boek - de Booker Prize winner van 2007! - ligt op de rechter zitbank, gevormd als een roze kruis, in de zetel rechtsachter die vanuit de rest van de kantine nauwelijks zichtbaar is. Het is vandaag erg rustig in de kantine, dus ik ben benieuwd of en wanneer dit boek wordt opgemerkt.

Vinder, welkom op Bookcrossing. Voor meer Nederlandstalige informatie, zie www.bookcrossing.nl

The book has been picked up!
It will be read, enjoyed and released into the wild again soon...

The book (picked up by catsil) was finally read in 3 months. Quite depressing but nice narrative.

Released it in Brugge, Belguim! Released it near the MAC computer near the funky red chair in the lobby of a hotel.
Who picked it up? Enjoy!