You know how when you read a book and you try your hardest to visualize the setting? You know, make yourself a part of the picture? And there are some books that are just so easy to visualize because the author gives such detailed descriptions?
This is one of those books! I loved it because I felt like I was really in the Welsh countryside! (It didn't hurt that the cover of the book really hooked me to begin with.) This book is so greatly detailed, from the setting in the countryside (farm country is what I call it) to the feelings of the characters. And what feelings they were!
Image from Barnes + Noble.
Fiona runs a gorgeous, thriving Bed & Breakfast and cares for her ill husband, who tries to continue managing the family's farm until he is no longer physically able to do so. (Something else happens assists in this but I'm not a big fan of spoilers in my posts.) Fiona is a great caretaker and always receives the greatest compliments from guests, but she just feels so lonely. She no longer feels passion in her marriage, does not have much to look forward to, and misses her daughter who is away at university. So when a handsome American stumbles upon the B&B, she takes to him immediately and her passion is ignited.
Fiona and Alec begin an affair before long (in the matter of days!) and she learns the truth about Alec, that he is also seeking passion again after losing his wife to cancer, and that he is in the countryside to climb a mountain and spread her ashes. (To bring her "home.") The closer they get, the less clear Fiona is about her life and where her husband belongs in it. When tragedy strikes, the affair stops because both Fiona and Alec realize that her commitment is still to her husband.
But of course, true love finds its way home and readers get a happy ending after all.
In the afterword, North describes his meaning of home and where he got the inspiration for the novel. It is true in part, as the idea of "coming home" came from a personal experience when the author spent three-and-a-half months walking 1,400 miles through southern England:
Along the way, I had one or two little epiphanies. You know how magazine articles and self-help books, not to mention Zen masters, tell you that the secret to happiness is to "live in the present"? Well, I don't know about you, but this has always been mystifying to me. But about a week into my walk I realized that "the present" had always seemed to me to be the briefest moment between grief about the past and anxiety about the future. But when you have no fixed itinerary, and no place you have to be at the end of the day, you live - from the instant you open your eyes in the morning to that blissful second when you close them at night - in the shimmering present.
The story was obvious - an affair, a wrestle with vows, a tragedy, etc., but I didn't feel like I understood the book until I read North's explanation at the end. It really tied all the references together, to bring meaning to "coming home."
Great book, beautiful details. Highly recommend it.
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