The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This haunting and unique story is Coates’ debut novel and a feat 10 years in the making. 

The story follows Hiram Walker, who was born an enslaved person (“Tasked”) in the Antebellum South. His mother was sold away, leaving Hiram with no memory of her but endowed with mysterious powers. Through a brush with death he unlocks the will to take a massive risk and attempt to escape from his home. This sets off a journey that results in Hiram being recruited into an underground war, where he confronts his memories and traumas while never abandoning a fierce determination to rescue his family. 

Coates has built this novel on extensive passion and interest in the era, as well as extensive research into the daily life of enslavers (“the Quality”) and the enslaved. Coates has emphasized the role family separation played in the daily life of an enslaved person; mothers separated from children, husbands separated from wives, grandmothers separated from grandchildren. Hiram is not only physically separated from his mother, but the trauma has wiped his memories of her, and this tension manifests in his relationships with other characters. The power of memory as opposed to history, and the power of the collective memories of enslaved peoples, is illustrated in this mystical world as part of Hiram’s superhuman powers and the key to unlocking his full potential. 

The Water Dancer also explores the realities of freedom, and what freedom entailed for enslaved peoples of the pre-Civil War era. The story of the Underground, the secret war between enslaved and enslavers, poignantly shows that freedom for the individual necessitated freedom for all those bound to “the Task”. A parallel can be drawn to modern day American society and make us reflect in earnest what justice and equality for African Americans means today in the face of continuing systemic discrimination. 

This novel is a suspenseful story of suffering, solidarity, sacrifice, family, and love. It places the enslavement narrative in a fantastical world of mystical powers that will keep you turning the pages.

Happy reading!

Review by Emma

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House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild

Welcome to a modern day version of Downtown Abbey. The Trelawneys, a British aristocratic family, are struggling to keep the dream alive on one of England’s greatest estates. Times are changing, and the reader will quickly discover that the current 25th Earl, Kitto, isn’t equipped to deal with a crumbling estate in the 21st century; an estate inhabited by the family for 800 years with the older generation locked in a distant bubble of grand parties attended by Royals with large numbers of staff attending to your every need. 

The story begins in 2008 just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and Kitto has taken some financial risky positions in the hope of making some much needed money. His sister, Blaze, who didn’t inherit the estate, but rather saw herself banished due to a centuries old rule, is living as a fund manager in London and is one of the few to predict the financial crisis. Kitto’s wife, Jane, is working herself to the bone trying to keep everybody (her husband, her less than grateful children and her parents-in-law) happy, running the estate while Kitto is away in London taking on his duties at the House of Lords. 

The financial collapse brings Trelawney to its knees and all the eccentric characters at Trelawney as well as in London begin to come alive, not to mention all the skeletons that start tumbling out of the closets. Into this chaos and sense of impending doom steps a young woman, the daughter of Kitto’s early Cambridge love interest. She is returning from India after her mother’s death and is about to turn everything on its head.

Hannah Rothschild is a talented writer with a knack for storytelling and adept at using her background as a historian to add color and history. The House of Trelawney is the story of growing up with history constantly looking over your shoulder to see if you are doing an adequate job, and how living up to expectations in a world where appearances is everything most certainly is not all that it’s cracked up to be, in spite of all the land (you once had), all the Royals and dignitaries (you once hosted). The book is also the story of how sometimes history and legacy chooses you and not the other way around and how as much as you might want to, you cannot deny your heart. 

The author has filled the book with lots of interesting characters and given them room to unfold. The family dynamics are the strength of the book - only made more interesting by the addition of wonderfully dry British humor.  Hannah Rothschild is already working (slowly, she says) on a follow-up and that is good news!

Pick it up if you liked…..Downtown Abbey (series or movie), Maria Semple or if you enjoy a good story set against a beautiful British backdrop and an aristocracy trying to reinvent (and save) itself.

Happy reading!

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Long Bright River by Liz Moore

This is a 450 (ish) pages long book that is a mix of a thriller and a family drama. But hang in there – it is worth every page.

Meet Mickey and Kacey, sisters living very different lives. The only thing they have in common is a toxic childhood, growing up with their cold and distant grandmother after the premature death of their young mother and their abandonment by their father  who was thrown out by the grandmother. 

Now in their 20s, Mickey is a police officer patrolling the streets of Kensington, Philadelphia, looking out for Kacey, who has taken up their mother’s drug habit, and is living on the street, picking up men to finance the addiction. 

The book shifts between now and then, and tells the inside story of the sisters’ life. Once close, things change dramatically in high school, and they both carry a very heavy burden. In the “Now-side” of the story a serial killer is targeting young women living on the street, and Mickey is desperate to find Kacey. 

It sounds like a tragic and sad story, and it is full of broken people, but it is also full of hope, of how to deal with your destiny, of what addiction does to a family and to a city, and how broken hearts can help propel you forward in life.

Long Bright River is well-written and Mickey’s feelings of being torn between being a cop, which is her success in life, and also being a caring sister to Kacey is at the heart of the story, and it will keep you turning the pages in suspense.

Happy reading!

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Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

Only after I had finished this book did I discover that it was inspired by a true story. In 2010 a plane crashed in Libya and the sole survivor was a 9 year old Dutch boy, who lost his parents and older brother. Napolitano couldn’t stop wondering what happened to the boy, so she decided to write ‘Dear Edward’. 

In this fictionalized version of the events, Edward is a 12 year old boy boarding a plane from NY to LA with his parents and older brother, Jordan. The plane crashes in Colorado and Edward, the sole survivor, moves in with his aunt and uncle – who are already struggling with their own pain of childlessness. 

The book is split in two stories. One story takes us on the doomed plane where we get to meet some of the passengers. What are they running from? Who are they running towards? Are they in love? It is all about relationships and how we connect with each other, and especially how we connect with each other while being ‘trapped’ on a plane. 

The second part of the story follows Edward as he lives with his aunt and uncle. Luckily Shay, a 12 year old girl living next door, is open to a friendship with Edward and they are able to heal each other in the time that follows the crash. 

Edward is experiencing the kind of fame you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy, and it adds an extra perspective when he comes across a bag with letters from the relatives of the other passengers. The letters wish for Edward to carry the dreams of those passengers. The reader cannot help but ask at what point does the burden of it all become too heavy for a 12 year old…

‘Dear Edward’ is a very emotional book that shows the ripple effects of our actions. How we connect and how we leave impressions upon each other. Healing is hard, but it also contains love and hope, and the book leaves you wishing Edward all the best in the world. 

Pick it up if you liked…Where the Crawdads Sing.

Happy reading!

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