Title: The Rain Watcher
Author: Tatiana de Rosnay
Release date: 10/30/18
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Length: 240pages
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review!
This is the story of the Malegarde family, told through Paul(the father)'s written account and Linden(the son)'s memories. There is a terrible flood in Paris where the core of the family is convened for Paul's birthday. As the waters rise, so does the tension as the family deals with illness, tragedy, and coming to terms with past traumas.
Once I figured out the flow of who was narrating at what time, this became a lovely read. Paul's voice is so unique, here is a brief quote just because I love it:
" I played with the trees. They were like living things to me, as alive as humans. They seemed to whisper secrets. Maybe I was the only one who heard them . Trees were at the heart of things. I was four years old, but I sensed that already." - from Paul's transcript.
While I was not fully engaged in the story at times, the writing is truly beautiful. Linden's descriptions of people, places, and the flood are amazingly vivid. I would have enjoyed the story more if I knew Paris - I skimmed some of the tales about the city but I could see French people truly loving this book.
The characters are very real, well developed, and likeable. Each Malegarde faces and comes to terms with a past or present trauma in the novel. The dialogue is also very well done except some times the book switches from conversation to a third person telling, right in the middle.
As a nurse I also really liked the hospital evacuation scenes, how cool would it be to work disaster relief!
I would 100% recommend this to anyone with even a vague knowledge of Paris, lovers of language, and a good fiction. 4/5 stars only because the author lost me at times in the pages of stories!
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