RaveThe Minneapolis Star TribuneMichael Ondaatje's remarkable novels, among them The English Patient, are not famous for ease. This is perhaps his most accessible. Its first half is mostly chronological. Joyful is the only way to describe the delights and surprises and risks these boys find onboard the Oronsay. Midway, though, the novel begins to flash forward more often, and the mood darkens with hints of something profound and disturbing to come … This story — its boys, its grownups, its wit and drama — will live with you long after you finish it. And your own life may be transformed by new memories of those odd, small moments — visible only to the least powerful — when suddenly everything becomes clear.
S.J. Watson
RaveThe Cleveland Plain DealerMost of this chilling debut novel, then, consists of that journal, scribbled in confusion, terror and longing — the longing to be whole again that is at the core of any erasure of self. But Christine, unlike some amnesiacs, derives no comfort from any of the handful of people in her life ... Author S.J. Watson, a 40-year-old British audiologist-turned-writer, describes a woman's psyche with intimate accuracy. Christine's journal is packed with prosaic details of her mundane days, dialogue in which she works to collect her memories, and many passages of wonder ... This chilling story is nothing like the Drew Barrymore romp in 50 First Dates. Christine finds no romance in her affliction ... We walk step by step in Christine's shoes on an exhilarating and terrifying path toward the truth of the accident that altered her ...an otherwise excellent, haunting tale.
