American expat Shelley Gallus had put her life on hold after her husband, Max, was killed in a Madrid train bombing three years earlier. When a man who is his spitting image rings her doorbell in London, claiming to be Max’s grandson, Paolo, Shelley refuses to believe this time-bending impossibility. That is, until the similarities between Max and Paolo’s beloved and seemingly ageless "Nonno" become too profound to ignore.
She and Paolo board a plane for the Philippines, where he believes Max has resurfaced. Shelley’s reminiscences about how she and Max first met form the heart of the novel, and although its structure jumps around a lot, the story is easy to follow. Max had been her guide on a laid-back package tour through the back roads of Europe that Shelley joined on impulse.
As the tour group’s VW van rumbles along from the steps of Montmartre to Switzerland’s Emmental Valley, and from the red-roofed skyline of Slovenia's capital to the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius, Max recounts folkloric vignettes from history, each one set further back in time. Each is a perfect little slice of the past featuring ordinary people, their difficult times, and how they fought to save their loved ones.
Back on the plane with Paolo, Shelley realizes that perhaps Max’s stories were more than that. Perhaps they were his way of telling the truth about himself.
Sotto’s deceptively slim debut is as rich and satisfying as one of Max's famous baked egg and cheese breakfasts, minus the calories and cholesterol. Its tone moves from zany to thoughtful to painfully sad and back again, all the while evoking the lengths people travel for love.
Before Ever After was published by Crown in August at $23.00/$25.95 in Canada (hardcover, 294pp). Stop on over to the author's website for back story, her blog, a virtual tour of the places in the book, and pics of the cutest little VW van. This review was first published in August's Historical Novels Review.
Thanks for the great review, Sarah. I'm really looking forward to reading this one.
ReplyDeleteI am really drawn to the cover of this book... I am just not sure the story itself would attract me.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds so intriguing, I am now looking forward to it. Thanks for this review.
ReplyDeleteHow old is Shelley when the book begins, since the matter of time-bending comes up?
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a must-read for me :-)
Shelley is in her twenties, while Max was in his early thirties when he died. Paolo, Max's supposed grandson, is also in his thirties. This isn't really a time-slip novel, and reading over the review I'm not sure I explained this as well as I could. I wanted to avoid giving too much away!
ReplyDeleteIt certainly fits the subject of your blog very well, Danielle! I loved the descriptions of so many out-of-the-way European settings. Especially Ljubljana, Slovenia. It's a city I had never heard much about, but the novel made me want to buy a plane ticket there asap.
You managed to make the mystery of it all sound irresistibly intriguing! I think I might have been persuaded to read the book even without such under-used settings, but as I went ahead and ordered the book last night I am now doubly thrilled to learn that Ljubljana is more than a name in the book and actually made an impression on you. (I am currently struggling through the most jaw-droppingly amateurish historical novel - disturbingly, it is traditionally published - and virtually the only sense of place comes from the inclusion of foreign words.)
ReplyDeleteI googled for photos of Llubljana right after finishing the book and was pleased to see it looked exactly as she described it. And oh no - is this a book you'll be writing up in the near future?
ReplyDeleteThat really is intriguing. Thanks, Sarah!
ReplyDeleteVery hesitant about whether I can compose a post about it, despite copious notes. As things look now, writing a frank evaluation would be tantamount to flaying the book alive. On one hand, the few reader reviews I have seen (it is a July-August release) are either so oblique or so dismayingly misleading that a more considered evaluation would certainly be useful. On the other, the author is a debut novelist, and however much tact I might try to summon in phrasing things, this is one time I cannot find anything positive or encouraging to say. I keep pressing on in the hope of some redeeming glimmer, but at this stage I am in a bit of a shock that something so ill-written and clueless was deemed fit for publication by a non-vanity publisher. It is not just a case of raw and unformed storytelling; what is truly bewildering is the blithe cluelessness about basic principles of fiction writing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Lucy!
ReplyDeleteFor Danielle - Ouch. It's always difficult to know how to respond when a debut novel is so terrible. I'm curious about it, but would understand if you decided not to go ahead with a review - or even finish the book, for that matter!
Thanks again for the lovely review, Sarah! So happy/relieved/ thrilled you enjoyed the book!
ReplyDeleteHi Sam, you're very welcome - hope you're having a fab time in NYC!
ReplyDeleteReally enjoying your book Samantha - hope you will publish more. Deb
ReplyDeleteIt's an awesome book. The story and the stories within are all gripping yet deceptively simple but the insights about love, life and on being human are so spot on as they nudged me to ask myself, "How do I make my life meaningful today?" Debut novel/amateur or not, it served to transport me to another place, make me feel the highs and lows of Max and Shelley's lives and still have them in my head long after I put the book down.
ReplyDeleteI loved the fantasy of being immortal; I loved Max, his chickens, his eggs and his stories. All the characters were interesting and blended together for a great story.
ReplyDeleteThis book seems super interesting I will have to add it to my tbr.
ReplyDeleteGreat!
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