The first book was entitled Night Wakings and it is centered around Anna, a mother/academic who was spending the summer on an isolated island (near Scotland) with her husband and children. The author, Sarah Moss, adeptly manages the tension between comedy and drama. The comedic elements play out in Anna's relationship between her husband and children. Anna is clearly sleep deprived, all the while trying to finish a book in order to honour her commitment as a research associate. Her reaction to insomniac children and a somewhat ambivalent and/or ignorant husband are classic. I love her dry wit. The drama arrives with the discovery of an infant's skeleton and the subsequent attempts to discern how this skeleton came to be buried outside Anna's house on this remote island. The story is layered with letters from the past that help to shed light on the mystery of the baby's remains. All in all, a fantastic read that I appreciated for its keen intelligence. Highly recommended!
A friend bought me this book to help kick start my immersion into New Zealand literature. On the whole, a great introduction. Charlotte Grimshaw is a very good author and the story arch is an interesting one. In a nutshell, it looks at the wife of a man who is going to be the next Prime Minister of New Zealand. However, as you'd expect, there is a fly in the ointment. This woman has a secret that is eating her up inside and is causing her to make questionable decisions. Added to this story is a Doctor with an unknown connection to this wife and his own ennui. The one difficulty I had with this book is that all the characters were extremely wealthy and it was hard to relate to the life they led and to feel the full extent of their plights. Still, a good back that kept me turning the pages.
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