A woman working in a rare bookshop in London in 1960 comes across a children’s storybook with illustrations that take her back to her childhood and the trauma of loss she experienced when her little sister was feared drowned in a river. Hazel Linden was only 14 years old when she and her 5 year old sister were evacuated to the English countryside during World War 2. Their experience there was mostly idyllic, until the day that Flora Lea Linden mysteriously disappeared. While it was assumed that Flora Lea had drowned that day in the River Thames, Hazel never gave up hope that she was alive and could be found. When Hazel discovers a storybook that hold details of a secret story she and Flora had shared about a place they called Whisperwood, she determines to track down the author and find out how she knows about stories that were shared only between Hazel and Flora.
This is a gentle story, even with a difficult storyline. I was rooting for Hazel (and Flora) throughout. The author was able to write about the real and human consequences of a life-long search for truth, and how the life we choose to live may not be the life we are meant to live. I should have seen part of the resolution coming, but missed it - probably because I felt mostly ‘along for the ride’ and wasn’t really putting too much thought into the storyline. Overall I enjoyed this story and I definitely liked the ending.
I rate this book a 4. the Zoom Reading Circle group rated it a 3.9.
Quotes from the book
Loss and gain. As nearly every myth told: birth, death, rebirth. One thing dying, another born.
Whisperwood belonged to her and her lost sister, Flora. It was a private realm that had sprung to life between them, a make-believe world to endure through the worst of the war, a place to find comfort where little existed.
Hazel was well attuned to disappointment in others. She picked up on any and all ways she didn’t please someone.
Despair leads us to stories, of course. We invent them so we can live in a world with meaning.
Bad things don’t always have a blaming place to land.
“But if you aren’t living your life, whose life are you living?” :Damn fine question,” said Kelty.
The best stories are soul-making. But stories we tell about ourselves, and even the harrowing ones told by others about us, can also be soul-destroying. We have to choose what is good and true, not what will destroy.
