Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. Sure, you could read advertising blurbs on Amazon, but wouldn’t you be more likely to believe a neighbor with no skin in the game over a corporation being fed words by publishers? So in this series, we are sharing these mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpost.com.
“The Wind Knows My Name,” by Isabel Allende (Ballantine Books, 2023)
This one starts a bit slow, as in, how are these disparate story lines related?!? But Allende, a masterful storyteller, does tie it all together, although perhaps a bit too coincidentally for some readers. This novel explores the lasting trauma of refugee children separated from their parents, whether by choice or by force. Inspired by a play based on the Kindertransport actions that sent mostly Jewish children from areas threatened by Nazi Germany to foster homes in the UK in the early phase of World War II, Allende’s latest novel also follows the plight of a young girl who fled El Salvador with her mother, from whom she was separated at the U.S. southern border. The details of how trauma manifests itself with these innocent children will tug at your heartstrings. – 3½ stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
“Homecoming,” by Kate Morton (Mariner Books, 2023)
Set primarily in Australia, “Homecoming travels between Sydney and South Australia, and 1959 and 2018. Journalist Jess Turner-Bridges is unaware she’s looking for home. At the age of 40, she finds her life in London is stalled, then sidetracked when she returns to Sydney to care for her grandmother. She plans to write an article about her homecoming, but is bushwhacked by the family mystery she walks into. You might expect the plot to be further complicated with the multiple perspectives, and the inclusion of a “nonfiction novel” within the novel, yet Kate Morton is a master juggler, and the effect is an intriguing literary mystery that kept my attention for all 547 pages. Morton deliberately leaves us with some questions about what happens after the ending. I envision lively book club discussions. — 3 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
“Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand” by Helen Simonson (Random House, 2011)
Really? In this day and age, does a cross-cultural relationship raise such a turmoil? Evidently, yes. At least this one oozes positive emotions. Another tale of love late in life throws a traditional, conventional Englishman into the excitement of a relationship with Jasmina, a Pakistani shopkeeper. Their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses give them common ground, while village society tsks-tsks over the goings-on. You’ll laugh, cry, cheer as they struggle toward the ending they so richly deserve. — 4 stars out of 4. Bonnie McCune, bonniemccune.com
“Still Born,” by Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Rosalind Harvey (Bloomsbury, 2023)
This novel explores the complicated emotions and ambiguities surrounding the choices and assumptions women make to become (or not become) a mother. Just as mothers come in different shapes and sizes, so too are individual women’s responses to motherhood varied. Likewise, there are many different paths to motherhood. We follow two different women who take two radically different paths, yet their emotional journeys show striking similarities, even in their contradictions. And we as readers can empathize with them both. (This one was on the shortlist for the 2023 International Booker Prize.) — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
