This book is told across two timelines.
There’s past-Elin, the eldest child of three struggling with her brothers and her mother to survive.
And there’s present-Elin, the seemingly perfect wife and mother who is going through a crisis of sorts.
The past focuses mostly on what it was like to live with nearly nothing.
Elin’s mother is stressed beyond belief, the children aren’t quite starving but they are getting close. There’s frequent verbal outbursts from the mother and the children are hurting from it.
In present-day, Elin’s daughter just went off to college and Elin is throwing herself into her work. She’s taking photographs every day to all hours of the night and her husband is feeling (understandably) forgotten and left out.
They are trying therapy, but Elin lives in this world where everything is fine.
But what no one knows is that the guilt from the past is pushing Elin forward.
But as the tension in her marriage grows, Elin will very soon be forced to make decision – continue running from her past? Or turn around and confront it?
Whew. So. I was so psyched for this one but it didn’t pan out.
I’m not big on depressing contemporaries and this one was no exception.
The way Elin has pulled away from her family and cannot see the pain it causes them frustrated me.
I did understand why she acted like that, but I just wanted to shake her. She works, works, works and acts apathetically towards all things outside of her job.
Which gave off the mood of…well…apathy.
If the main character doesn’t care one iota about her husband feeling neglected…it’s hard for me (as a reader) to feel the same thing.
Also, the pacing of this book felt reallllllllly slow. Things eventually did end up happening but gosh-dang it took SO long for anything interesting to pop up on paper.
Ultimately, this one wasn’t for me.
I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Miranda Reads 