Pamela D

Three women meet on a towpath along a canal near London, strangers brought together by a howling dog in a narrowboat, all three at crossroads in their life. Anastacia, the boat owner, teaches Eve and Sally how to operate the narrowboat and trusts them to deliver it to the repair facility in Chester, over 200 miles north, a trip that would take more than six weeks. Six weeks that would change their lives.

The story reads like a narrowboat trip – slow, meandering, graceful & enriching. Along the way, Eve & Sally meet a variety of people, some of whom will become dear friends and some who will remain just people they met.

A perfect book club read – so many episodes ripe for discussion and consideration. This is a book I will reread next summer and dream of my own narrowboat trip.

I saw numerous reviews on blogs raving about this book. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of picking this book up at the library right after reading Rebecca. Not that it was a bad book, quite the contrary, but it paled in comparison. It was an ambitious novel with a number of interconnected subplots. I was totally wrapped up in the events for the first two thirds of the book. Then it was as if Ms. Setterfield couldn’t figure out how to end it. I found the wrap-up disjointed from the story preceding it. She tied up a lot of loose ends quickly with a “they all lived happily ever after” ending, some of which rang true but to me the primary explanation was stretching it. I felt like she was saying “oh, dear, this story is going on too long. I have end it. So I’ll do this.” I look forward to Ms. Setterfield’s next offering, though, since this was an excellent start for a first novel.