Emotiva historia (o historias) contadas desde diferentes personajes que giran en torno a la muerte en la Inglaterra victoriana de los últimos años del siglo XIX.
Me pareció una novela original y a la vez muy entretenida, que no puedes dejar de leer. Todo ello escrito de una manera muy bonita y sensible.
Chevalier siempre sorprende y siempre es un acierto.

Mi rendo conto sia un romanzo particolare, eppure è il mio preferito di Tracy Chevalier.
Si tratta di un romanzo corale, narrato in prima persona dai vari protagonisti e ambientato nei primi dieci anni del XX secolo, in un'Inghilterra che fatica a riprendersi dalla morte della Regina Vittoria. Mentre le due bambine protagoniste, figlie di famiglie borghesi, si divertono a giocare al cimitero di Highgate col figlio del becchino, la mamma di una delle due viene coinvolta nella causa delle Suffragette.
C'è molto di vittoriano in queste pagine, ma troviamo anche tanta voglia di reagire all'establishment vittoriano, che ha attanagliato il Paese per troppo tempo con convenzioni sociali e morali che ad alcuni cominciano a stare strette.
Certo, tre bambini (che cresceranno negli anni) che giocano a nascondino fra tombe e monumenti funebri potrebbe sembrare macabro, ma è proprio quì che sta la forza di questo romanzo: parlare della morte in modo non sempre convenzionale, ma certamente molto delicato e intimo.
Ho letto questa storia per la terza volta, e di nuovo mi sono commosso.

Unfortunately, I found the first forty pages of "Falling Angels" non-engaging. Character development was slow. The story and the personalities were uninteresting. I stopped reading the book. I placed my copy on the night stand. Fortunately, since I was familiar with the author, I started reading the book again. I needed to be patient. The style and tempo of the book was unfamiliar to me. I needed to adjust to the format of the book and the initial slow revelation of the characters. I trusted my instincts. I trusted the author.

Some readers may find the plot morbid. While several scenes occur in a cemetery and the book includes references to death, the story is not gruesome or grisly. In many ways the dark circumstances simply provide a context for the entangle and complicated lives of the characters. Once again, Tracy Chevalier, the author, explores the thoughts, feelings, attitudes and moral dilemmas of the young, middle aged and older people in her book.

Although the novel is not as powerful as Tracy Chevalier's "Girl with the Pearl Earring," I highly recommend the book to young adult and more mature readers. In addition, I encourage all "followers" of Tracy Chevalier to read "Falling Angels."

La historia de dos familias que no se llevan bien entre si pero cuyas hijas son amigas. Realmente no hay mucho más que ver su día a día y verlas crecer a través de los años, si fuera un libro contemporáneo no lo hubiera terminado pero como esta ambientado en 1900 por lo menos tenia algo por lo que interesarme.

No me ha gustado mucho :(
Personajes planos, previsibles y con poca fuerza. Tramas vistas una y mil veces... En fin, me quedo con el contexto, que al menos se nota que la autora se documentó para realizar el libro

تاحالا جنازه ندیده ام . گفتن این حرف از یک گورکن بعید به نظر می رسد . تمام روز را با جنازه های اطرافم سر میکنم ولی همه شان توی تابوت اند . درشان محکم میخ شده اند و روی شان هم خاک ریخته شده . بعضی وقت ها می ایستم روی یک تابوت ، داخل قبر . بین من و جنازه فقط چند سانتی متر فاصله است . اما نمی بینمش . اگر زمان بیشتری را بیرون از قبرستان صرف می کردم جنازه های بیشتری می دیدم . مسخره است ، مادر و خواهرهایم صدتاشان را دیده اند . همه زن ها و بچه هایی که موقع دنیا آمدن مرده اند و یا همسایه هایی که از گرسنگی یا سر ما تلف شده اند .

I enjoyed this one, although this made for a heck of a book to finish just after giving birth to a baby girl. I mean, I can think of worse, but the sudden, violent death of a little girl was not exactly welcome just now.

Other than that, I found this to be a quick, engaging read. I enjoyed getting so many different perspectives, and appreciated that each change in point of view was clearly marked.

The book has plenty of literal angels in the cemetery, including a literal “Falling Angel,” but the title also made me think of the Victorian notion that a good wife should be the “angel of the home.” Gertrude Waterhouse is probably the closest to embodying that ideal: she seems content to run a peaceful home without antagonizing her husband the way Kitty Coleman does. And although I didn’t always agree with Kitty’s choices, I always felt sorry for how stifled she felt. Of course the lower class women, the maid and the cook, don’t have the liberty to stay home to be anyone’s “angel” - this is an ideal available only to the middle and upper class.

Other thoughts about the “Falling Angels” of the title: it can point to the various characters' moral failings, especially Kitty and Jenny, or the two deaths near the end of the book.

Speaking of which, we only hear from Ivy May that one time. Are we meant to believe that she always thinks so poetically? She’s such an odd, watchful presence. I really expected her role in the story to be something else entirely - maybe that she’d provide a key piece of information that everyone else missed because they weren’t as perceptive. Or at least that she’d be the one to grow up and be something unconventional for her day. But no.

On a different note, I loved watching the other two daughters, practical Maude and fanciful Lavinia, grow up together over the course of the book. Their personalities are so distinct and feel fully formed as they gradually figure out everything that is expected of them and begin to have their own feelings and opinions about it all.

In the last section of the book, I would have liked to see more of Maude’s thought process as she came to terms with her mother’s death and legacy. Growing from the girl who was mortified by her mother’s activism into the young woman who aspires to Cambridge surely didn’t happen overnight, and I would have liked a little more of that.

I liked all of this book except the ending. I especially liked the cemetery since I live next door to one. I wish mine had more angels and urns. I liked the tie-in to the suffragette movement. I'm very grateful for the women who had the guts to stand up and fight for women's rights. It can't have been easy and we are still today reaping the benefits. Things have even improved since I left the working field. It was tough for me to succeed as a woman in a man's domain, but with brains and desire, I did pretty well. Today I would have done even better, maybe.

به ساعت نگاه کردم درست سه و سی پنج دقیقه بود،و تمام .شاید تمام کردن و خوندن این کتاب کمتر از پنج ساعت وقتم رو گرفت اما... امان از خودم که هر چی میکشم از خودم است!سعی کردم ستاره بدم که نشد:( این کتاب کتابی است سطحی.... هم چیز بر سطحی حرکت میکند، شخصیت پردازی ها و حتی گر ها، گره گشایی ها همه و همه...مثل یک تک چوب بر موج و سطح اقیانوس داستان... ما از علت رفتارهای شخصیت ها سر در نمی اوریم.. اوه زود وارد نقد شدم .داستان حول دو خانواده اشرافی انگلستا ن می چرخد درست اوایل قرن بیستم و اواخر قرن نوزدهم در بزنگاه تجدد خواهی و مبارزه برای حق رای زنان!!!ما با روایت های ذهنی تک تک اعضا بخصوص دو کودک وارد زندگی این دو خانواده میشویم. در واقع پیشبرد داستان و نحوه روایت حوادث از زبان شخصیت هاست چیزی که در میانه کتاب ،ص 200 ازارم داد همین بود!بیشتر روایت ها از ذهن شخصیت های زن داستان بیان میشود ما هیچ از مردان و نگاهشان نسبت به حوادث نداریم ،جز ان که دو مرد خانواده به کریکت علاقه دارند و در این داستان هیچ چیزی از اتفاقات در خانه شان نمی دانند هیچ چیز ، تنها در میابیم یکی از مردها کریکت میکند و مرد دیگری که علاوه بر کریکت به رصد ستار ها هم میپردازد همین!!! میشود گفت داستانی زنانه بوده است اما با این احوال ما نمی توانیم حتی با شخصیت کیتی همذات پنداری کنیم چرا او نسبت به همسرش که چیز زیادی هم از او نمی دانیم بی توجه است ؟
چرانسبت به فرزندش چنین بی محبت است ؟ و هزاران چرای دیگر .شخیصت مود واقعا جای کار داشت و شخصیت لیوی و خانواده اش بجز خواهر بدبختش همه و همه از تیپ سازی فراتر نرفتند. شخصیت جکسون ؛سیمون و باقی ادم ها ؛خدمتکاران هم همین همگی پرداختی سطحی داشتند.راستش داستان ضربانگ تند و غم انگیزی دارد؛ طوری که شمای خواننده ،دست از پرس جو بابت علل رفتار شخصیت ها برمیدارید...... مطمئن هستم عد ه ای عاشق داستان هستند ولی نه من! این یک داستان ساده وسرراست وبه شدت غم انگیز است در لحظاتی حتی خفقان اور:( اما درست مثل زندگی مان بعد از هر لحظه مصیبت بار افتاب می تابد و استخوا نهای یخ زده مان را گرم میکند وچه گرمای مطبوعی !!!!!

I enjoyed this book from the first to the last page. When Maude Coleman and Lavinia Waterhouse, both five years of age, meet at their families' adjoining cemetery plots on the day after Queen Victoria's death, the friendship that results between sensitive, serious-minded Maude and narcissistic, melodramatic Livy is not unlikely, despite the difference in social classes. But the continuing presence in their lives of a young gravedigger, Simon Field, is. Far too cheeky for a boy of his age and class, Simon plays an important part in the troubles that will overtake the two families. Other characters are gifted with insights inappropriate to their age or station in life. Yet Chevalier again proves herself an astute observer of a social era, especially in her portrayal of the lingering sentimentality, prejudices and early stirrings of social change of the Victorian age. When Maude's mother, Kitty, becomes obsessively involved with the emerging suffragette movement, the plot gathers momentum. While it's obvious that tragedy is brewing, Chevalier shows imaginative skill in two neatly accomplished surprises, and the denouement packs an emotional wallop.

I enjoyed this melodramatic novel complete with fainting women and smelling salts.
Told in very brief alternating chapters from eight points of view and spanning the years from 1901 through 1910. The device of points of view gives the reader a broad overview of English middle and lower class society over those years. The battle for a woman’s right to vote plays a large part in this work. Some of the melodrama in the work is a bit over the top but I did enjoy the characters and am glad I read the book.

3.5⭐
یک سوم ابتدایی داستان خیلی کند پیش میرفت و اتفاق خاصی نیفتاد اما یک سوم پایانی ریتم اتفاقات خیلی تند شد و چند تا اتفاق شوکه کننده افتاد.