I think this may have been a masterpiece. Or at least a masterful work of fiction. Most auspicious not just for a debut but for any novel, for any author.
The novel takes place in 1961 Dutch province, middle of nowhere, where the protagonist, Isabel, lives alone in a house too large for one person and a life too small for any one person. Yet she hangs on to it tenaciously for it is all she has and all she knows. With nothing but her two brothers for occasional visits, an uncle nearby, and a maid for assistance, Isabel passes her days, all the same versions of the same day, until she meets Eva, the girlfriend her brother brings by and leaves behind. Isabel hates everything about Eva, but she cannot look away from her. Now that her life has been disrupted, now that her peace of mind has been taken away from her, what will she find instead … in a woman who is as different from her as different can be? Soon things begin to go missing, the claustrophobic confines of the place crank up the suspense, an obsession spirals out of control. And then the novel slips into the past, a brief but crucial journey, to turn everything you know about it around. And it’s all so beautifully clever that you just want to stand up and applaud. And it gives the story and its characters some terrific dimensionality that you immediately know the ending you want, the ending they need. So yes, the plotting is very clever, but the writing … it stands to mention just how stunning the writing is. Evocative, vivid, profoundly engaging, this is the book you’ll read with all your senses, a heartbreaking, mind whirling story you won’t want to put down. The relationship between the two main characters, the halting, unfinished sentences, the tentative reach, the silences, and all that hides and can be found in ellipses … it’s a thing of beauty. It’s also might be one of the most sensual, sexy books I’ve ever read. All in all, a gorgeous book. The sort of thing that rekindles one’s faith in written word. I absolutely loved it. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
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