Eve Green

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One of the most beautiful books I have ever read. One that I go back to again and again when I need to be reminded that the world is a fantastic place. When I need to taste the countryside in my sometimes stifling urban environment. I mentioned this book in an earlier review of 'When the Earth Hums in B Flat', as that one was also set in rural Wales. Here it is written of in Summer also, when I think it is most bewitching and unexpected, as Wales is never really thought of without greenness and dampness as its definition.
Of course, love is here too. Eve Green is a girl born of a hushed love-making, her mother dies very young whereupon Eve is brought to Wales.

'...Did I cry? No. But a
secret part of me unfurled up on the ridge that afternoon.
My loss billowed out before me, snapping at itself and
pulling me with it, streaming out over the sheep hills like
a funeral flag caught in the strong Welsh wind.'

Susan Fletcher's writing is alluring and poetic. She was young when she wrote this book (it won the Whitbread First Novel Award) and the language is sometimes a bit self-conscious, but this really suits the book, it feels like Eve Green is so real. Some phrases are heart-stoppingly lovely, but have a strangely shy air to them, as if these are words that Susan Fletcher saved for a long time and reluctantly decided to share.
I am very glad she did. This is also a book of grief, and the universal truth that time passes, and wounds heal, and if they scar, that they don't hurt any more.
Highly recommended, I know that Rebecca at Teacups, Cupcakes loved it too.

The Earth Hums in B Flat

Ever since I read 'Eve Green' by Susan Fletcher, (a heart-breakingly beautiful book - let down by it's chick-litty cover) whenever I pick up a book about a childhood in Wales, my mind thinks 'oooh'... This book has a gothic tone and a murder as it's backstory, but is really more about growing up in a tiny community and the pressure to live a quiet life and not arouse the attention of the neighbours.
Gwenni, the 12-year-old narrator, is strangely unlikeable, however, even though the author tries to make her sound whimsical and imaginative, she does not get developed enough to make her a fully rounded teller of the story, as this voice has to be very strong in a novel. But, somehow, this does not detract too much from the book. Gwenni's mother is the strongest character here, a woman with secrets that burden her, that make her a little too angry when her daughter acts 'dollaly', snappish, severe and caught up with what people think of her. I really wanted to find out why exactly she was so bent on getting the acceptance of the community and having a normal family.
I have never experienced first-hand what it is like to live in a tiny community, maybe that is why I am fascinated by books like this, as it may as well be describing living on the moon, with the feeling of 'otherness' I get from it. My mother talks frequently about the anonimity she cherishes while living in London (having lived until she was 28 in a tiny town in Russia), the feeling you can do what you want, go anywhere and nobody will be any the wiser. It must be a strange feeling to be so...well, known, I suppose. I think I would feel partly very safe but very watched too...
Anyway, back to the book!
Just to let you know, the ending does not dissapoint, everything unravels faster than a badly knitted sweater and it is a great relief to know the secrets, which is a glorious feeling...
Wales as a setting is perfect for this kind of story, and the author describes lusciously the damp greenery, the bright blue of a lost budgie's wing in a gloomy haze of rain.
I would read this book again I think, but only pay attention to the attention to detail displayed here and the vivid imagery, not the plot!