Saturday, September 19, 2015

Sunday Salon...

Sunday Salon finds me completing "the Night Guest", Fiona McFarlane.  What a good book, a little out there, but then again so am I.  I wonder. will I be Ruth, with two sons?  I know I won't have the $ Ruth had, so perhaps I won't be such a tempting target.

from Amazon.ca

Ruth is widowed, her sons are grown, and she lives in an isolated beach house outside of town. Her routines are few and small. One day a stranger arrives at her door, looking as if she has been blown in from the sea. This woman--Frida--claims to be a care worker sent by the government. Ruth lets her in.
Now that Frida is in her house, is Ruth right to fear the tiger she hears on the prowl at night, far from its jungle habitat? Why do memories of childhood in Fiji press upon her with increasing urgency? How far can she trust this mysterious woman, Frida, who seems to carry with her own troubled past? And how far can Ruth trust herself?
The Night Guest, Fiona McFarlane's hypnotic first novel, is no simple tale of a crime committed and a mystery solved. This is a tale that soars above its own suspense to tell us, with exceptional grace and beauty, about ageing, love, trust, dependence, and fear; about processes of colonization; and about things (and people) in places they shouldn't be. Here is a new writer who comes to us fully formed, working wonders with language, renewing our faith in the power of fiction to describe the mysterious workings of our minds.

So if you are elderly or have an elderly person in your life, check on them... before Frida comes to stay.


Thank You Annie for suggesting this title, it was a very good read.

5 comments:

Margaret @ BooksPlease said...

Looks good - scary, but good!

Annie said...

yes, it was a strange , scary but interesting novel.
A cautionary tale too.

Vicki said...

I don't do as much scary as I used to, but it does sound good.

bermudaonion said...

Yikes, that sounds rather creepy.

Annie said...

it seems a little weird for Canadians to be reading Australian books...glad you enjoyed it...glad it was just a novel, tho I always wonder what motivates people to write a book like that. surely from experience?

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