Overview:
When she was just fifteen, smart, sensitive Jane Standen lived through a nightmare: she lost the sweet five-year-old girl she was minding during a walk in the woods. The little girl was never found, leaving her family, and Jane, devastated. Now the grown-up Jane is an archivist at a small London museum that is about to close for lack of funding. As her one last project, she is searching the archives for scraps of information related to another missing person--a woman who disappeared some 125 years ago from a Victorian asylum. As the novel moves back and forth between the museum in contemporary London, the Victorian asylum, and a dilapidated country house that seems to connect both missing people, it unforgettably explores the repercussions of small acts, the power of affection, and the irrepressible vitality of everyday objects and events.
Here is a rivetting, gorgeously written novel that powerfully reminds us of the possibility that we are less alone than we might think.
Here is a rivetting, gorgeously written novel that powerfully reminds us of the possibility that we are less alone than we might think.
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Review:
The World Before Us is thoroughly engrossing and beautifully written. Told in first-person plural, readers join the group of other-worldly figures who have spent the last twenty years following Jane, in search of who they are.
Inglewood, both contemporary and Victorian, holds the secrets of two missing women, nearly 125 years apart. As Jane gets closer to unraveling the mystery of missing girl N-, she must face her haunted past: the disappearance of five-year-old Lily, while under Jane's care.
Hunter's novel reveals itself like a microscope flitting in and out of focus. Readers get a glimpse of life through an archivist's eye; dates, names, and places become the stories of family and friends. As Jane learns the truth about N, I couldn't help but wonder if Jane- and her followers- would at last make peace with the past.
Again, an excellent, engaging read.
Inglewood, both contemporary and Victorian, holds the secrets of two missing women, nearly 125 years apart. As Jane gets closer to unraveling the mystery of missing girl N-, she must face her haunted past: the disappearance of five-year-old Lily, while under Jane's care.
Hunter's novel reveals itself like a microscope flitting in and out of focus. Readers get a glimpse of life through an archivist's eye; dates, names, and places become the stories of family and friends. As Jane learns the truth about N, I couldn't help but wonder if Jane- and her followers- would at last make peace with the past.
Again, an excellent, engaging read.
* I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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