Being Brave

A very good looking proof

Every once in a while, a reader comes across a book that they know from the very first line is going to be outstanding. We all remember the great first lines: Pride and Prejudice, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Tale of Two Cities, Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Go-Between and I Capture the Castle to name just a few. They get your attention, they set the book up, they give you the confidence that this is going to be a truly exceptional read.

The first line of this book is so compelling that the publisher used it on the front of the book proof, "War was declared at 11.15 and Mary North signed up at noon." I knew from that very line, Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave was going to be a book that I wouldn't want to finish - and I was right. I wanted to be reading it all the time and I loved every single minute of it. Even the desperately sad parts, the sometimes casual depiction of the everyday horrors of war, the brutal violence and the physical and emotional destruction that comes with it.

Enjoying every word

This book was described by the publishers in their advance material as a literary epic and although it most certainly is literary there is something too detailed and too intimate to allow it to be described as an epic. An epic, to me, is a sprawling thing with a myriad of characters, tangled relationships and a timeframe that goes on at least a decade too long. The action of Everyone Brave Is Forgiven takes place over a mere 21 months. There are only a handful of characters and although their relationships are complicated they are never heavy-handed or overdone. One of the things that most struck me about this book was the changes in the characters over the timeframe of the book. At the beginning, they are funny, young, hopeful and brave; by the end they are older, wiser, slower, a bit broken but certainly no less brave. 

A part of me fell in love with each of the characters, flawed though they were and they became friends that I didn't want to be parted from. The deliciously open ending was perfect and made that parting bearable as they carried on their lives without me observing them. A wonderful book with an opening line that augered well, promised much and delivered more. 

Excellent Women

If you were the kind of person that might judge a book by its cover (which let's face it, I know do - all the time) you would certainly find that these two books are very fine books indeed. They are both beautifully designed and produced and are just the kind of book that I would want to read, just from looking at them. I picked The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim as a holiday read for our recent week in Cornwall and D bought Pax by Sara Pennypacker as a present for me from the most excellent St Ives Bookseller. Sadly I didn't have enough time to finish either of them while we were actually away. (I did finish The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, but more of that another time.) But now we're back and I have my reading time on the train, I've raced through them both and enjoyed them very much indeed.

In Pax, Sara Pennypacker has seamlessly woven three stories: that of the title character Pax, his boy Peter, and the broken (but not bowed) Vola. All three characters are rich and believable. I don't usually go in for talking animals, but the very 'foxness' of Pax is utterly enchanting and convincing to boot. 

The background to these stories is a war-torn country, the precise area in which Peter and Pax live has been evacuated. Peter's father has enlisted and Peter is sent to his grandfather's house, meaning that he must leave Pax behind. Needless to say, this doesn't go well for either of them and the first section of the book is dedicated to their anxious search for each other.

The second section of the book is where, for me, things got really interesting and new characters were introduced. Two cranky women. (Perhaps this is why I liked it so much!) Vola is a woman damaged by war and Bristle is a vixen fighting to survive against the humans while looking after her brother Runt.  On first encounter, neither of these women want anything to do with Peter or Pax but as the lives of the two humans and the two foxes become entwined they soon become as important to each other as the fox and his boy. The third section of the story sees the two main characters reunited but the shift in the dynamics of their relationships has altered everything and life will never be the same again for either of them. The finale was heart-wrenching, but the openness of the ending left hope for me that all would ultimately be well.

This was a wonderful book that I would whole-heartedly recommend. Viola is one of the most excellent women characters in children's literature that I've met in a while. The only thing that would have made it better for me would've been far more of Jon Klassen's delicious illustrations, but you can't have everything.

Speaking of excellent women brings me onto the second book that I finished this week. I am a huge fan of the Virago Modern Classics range and have been ever since I discovered Excellent Women by Barbara Pym with a cover by Orla Kiely.

This beautiful book with a cover by Angie Lewin has been sitting by my bedside for quite some time waiting for a suitable occasion, and a holiday in Cornwall in April just felt like the perfect time to be reading The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. The interiors are every bit as delightful as the cover and the four women who find themselves thrown together for a month in an Italian castle are about as colourful and charming as you could hope for. Set in the 1920s, two young women, Rose and Lotty, both dissatisfied with the marriages are brought together by an advertisement in the Times for a small Italian castle available to rent for the month of April. Finding it a stretch financially, they enlist two very different women, the bored but beautiful, Lady Caroline and the haughty and lonely Mrs Fisher. At first meeting they get on terribly, but as the weeks pass by and their relationships deepen the magic of San Salvatore weaves its way in and out of their lives. It's not massive on story, but the characters are all and it is simply wonderful. I dare you not to love it!