This book won the Whitbread (Now Costa Coffee) First Novel Award in 2004, the year it was published. It was also selected as part of the Richard and Judy Summer Reads in 2005, and in part that was the reason I picked it up (although I peeled the sticker off, because I am a snob) as I have ... Read review
Advantages: Gentle, engaging read Disadvantages: Nothing major - writing style may not appeal to all.
This book won the Whitbread (Now Costa Coffee) First Novel Award in 2004, the year it was published. It was also selected as part of the Richard and Judy Summer Reads in 2005, and in part that was the reason I picked it up (although I peeled the sticker off, because I am a snob) as I have enjoyed some of their selections in the past. At the time it was an unknown book to me and keen to try something new I took a chance with this book. I am glad to ... ...This is a story about Love, but not always in the conventional sense, it is as much about family love and friendship as romantic love. It is also a story about loss. Evangeline Jones, known as Evie, lost her mother when she was seven. Not knowing her father, she left Birmingham (the only home she’d known) to live with her maternal grandparents in Wales where she spent the rest of her childhood. Evie’s childhood recollections of her first year in ... more
This book won the Whitbread (Now Costa Coffee) First Novel Award in 2004, the year it was published. It was also selected as part of the Richard and Judy Summer Reads in 2005, and in part that was the reason I picked it up (although I peeled the sticker off, because I am a snob) as I have enjoyed some of their selections in the past. At the time it was an unknown book to me and keen to try something new I took a chance with this book. I am glad to say it paid off.
This is a story about Love, but not always in the conventional sense, it is as much about family love and friendship as romantic love. It is also a story about loss. Evangeline Jones, known as Evie, lost her mother when she was seven. Not knowing her father, she left Birmingham (the only home she’d known) to live with her maternal grandparents in Wales where she spent the rest of her childhood. Evie’s childhood recollections of her first year in Wales are interspaced with the adult Evie who is expecting her first child. Part of the charm is hearing about the mysterious red headed man from where she inherited her own red hair and her childhood love for her grandparents’ farm hand Daniel and how it translates into the adult Evie. That summer is not all about innocence. Evie is judged by people based on the trouble her father allegedly caused, a man whose name she doesn’t even know. Evie has a box of trinkets her mother left behind, and Evie tries to trace the significance of the supposedly innocuous objects to her mother’s life. On top of that, a local girl goes missing and Evie secretly becomes friends with someone everyone else believes she shouldn’t…
The story is beautifully written and is such a gentle, descriptive tale I was surprised as much happened in it as it did. The author, Susan Fletcher, takes her time to tell us about the sights, sounds, smells, thoughts and memories that surround Evie in that first year in Wales; it is like you were there yourself. In other books I have sometimes found this style of writing frustrating, almost like padding. This is not the case here and I felt it really fitted in with the lazy, hazy summer days that Fletcher was telling us about. I found the book very easy to read, but it is not a slow book by any means. The characters are interesting and easy to relate to as they are not perfect stereotypes but seem so much like real people. Mostly I liked it because it didn’t go where I expected it. At one stage as I was reading the book I felt I knew where it was going and that I had pretty much predicted the end and spotted a clever twist in Evie’s past. I hadn’t. There was no contrived clever twist to her past it just was how it was, in respect of the missing girl the book is not trying to be a mystery or a whodunit, just an engaging tale. This may not be everyone’s cup of tea however, some people may find that unsatisfactory and prefer an alternative ending. I really don’t want to reveal anymore!
The book is only 280 pages long so is not a big read, and flows nicely. I am giving it only 4 stars because as much as I liked it I don’t think it is a book I will come back to a read again. It was maybe too gentle to inspire me to rave about it to all my friends like I have done with some books. By all means read it, I would expect most people to enjoy it, but for some it maybe an acquired taste.
Susan Fletcher was born in Birmingham in 1979. This is her first novel. The RRP is £7.99 but there are some good offers on the web at the moment.
Advantages: Lovely descriptive novel, beautifully written Disadvantages: None
...The story is told by Eve Green the central character in the novel and she is 29 years old and expecting her first baby. The book describes her memories from when she was 7 years old, that was when she first learnt to fully write her own name "Evangeline Green" and when her mother died.
Eve (or Evie as she is also known) goes to live with her grandparents in a cold damp farmhouse on the outskirts of a little village. For a young girl from Birmingham ... ...as an eight year old Eve is a determined, inquisitive and stubborn young woman, she sets out to discover answers for her many questions. Her main quest is to discover the truth about who her father was, something neither her mother when she was alive would talk about and now her grandparents refuse to mention as well. This quest leads to answers but also some devastating consequences. However the characters she meets and makes friends with help her ...
AJ26 06.04.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Eve Green - Susan Fletcher
...all the book is called Eve Green - the tale belongs to Evie Hughes.
Evie grew up in Birmingham. In a terraced house backing on to the railway lines. With a mother saddened by the absence of a father never spoken of and struggling to hold herself together. But Evie doesn't remember it as sad, exactly, she remembers patches of beauty. When she has to leave, following her mothers death, she remembers that "the pink plant on the shed roof had been in ... ...As it is a grown-up Eve that talks to us, a tired, aching Eve with 'only six weeks to go' - we know that she will survive that summer and find love. This removes any unnecessary speculation on her childhood fate…but encourages others. It is a device, but one subtly played. It is also a mechanism for allowing an adult perception on the thoughts of a child, and Fletcher manages to switch deftly from one to the other in the narrative…recalling the depth ...
hiker 25.06.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Eve Green - Susan Fletcher
...intelligence, bravery and romance that Eve Green has I would be a very lucky lady. Evie as she is also known as a child, has all these things at the tender age of eight. This book is not my typical read at all, it has been on my book shelf for about a year waiting in a queue to be read. I finally read it last week in two or three sittings. It is 215 pages long so it is quite a quick read but its by no means fluffy and light. I found it a bit confusing ... ...tells her story looking back. Eve was brought up in rural Wales by her grandparents after the death of her single Mum, she has a lot of freedom to explore the area, as do the other children. A girl the same age as Evie then goes missing, the community pulls together to find her but ugly secrets are unearthed. Many questions are left unanswered in this book but somehow it doesn't matter. This is not a thriller, or a story of romantic love, it is meant ...
chantelly 18.09.2007
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Eve Green - Susan Fletcher
Advantages: excellent story line, good characters Disadvantages: fairly short
Eve Green is the first novel of Susan Fletcher who was born in the West Midlands in 1979, just like me! 'Beautifully rendered, the story moves easily from past to present, sensuously descriptive yet hauntingly sinister. Eve green is an enthralling first novel from a major new talent.'Waterstone's Books Quarterly.
The main character of the book is Eve Green. Eve (actually Evangeline) tells the story of her childhood, beginning in Birmingham when ... ...left in a box which Eve recieves when she is 18, mother and daughters lives are interwoven. Throughout the book you are introduced to the people who live in the small village in Wales. The author has managed to create vivid pictures for me of who these people are, through wonderful descriptions and imagery. You develop strong feelings for all the characters and have to read on to find out what happens to them, and who is involved in the disapearance ...
mussonanna 27.03.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Eve Green - Susan Fletcher
Advantages: Easy Read Disadvantages: Leaves you wondering
...story from the perspective of Eve at three different stages of her life. As a child as a pregnant woman and reading the contents of her mothers secrets box.
Susan Fletcher has an easy lyrical style and writes short sentences which give the impression that the novel is being written by an 8 year old. Her descriptive passages of the locations are by far the best things in the book. It won the Whitbread prize in 2004 for the best first novel. ...
christmasfairy1970 25.01.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Eve Green - Susan Fletcher
