I enjoyed this a lot as the places were very familiar (that always makes a book even more interesting for me if I know the location) and the writing kept me reading. Pure enjoyment that I kept wanting to read night after night as I headed to bed.

i have to stop reading these types of stories...rough

What I liked about this book: vivid and well-rounded characters(!), references to pop culture, dialogue in French, intrigue, deception, loyalty, a storybook marriage, historical references, beautiful descriptions of time and place(!), the denouement that left me feeling emotionally exhausted


What I didn't like: some strong language, disturbing scenes of child molestation, the chapters where Madeleine is an adult

I couldn't recommend this book without reservation. However, after plodding through the first 100 pages, I found myself both riveted and horrified by what I was reading. The writing is at times stunning and evocative, but often so disturbing I had to put the book down. The last third of the book moves much too slowly and doesn't effectively move the plot forward, but the resolution of the murder was both surprising and satisfying (albeit awful).

Extremely long, with a payoff that's desperately lacking. This book has an interesting setting and is overall well written, but at the end I didn't feel like reading it had been worth my time.

Ihana löytö - kun koko ajan lukee "tämän vuoden hittikirjoja", unohtaa helposti että lähimenneisyydessä on kirjoitettu upeita teoksia jotka ovat menneet ohi muiden kiireiden takia. Tässä vuosituhannen alusta pieni (tai oikeastaan järkälemäinen) timantti, jossa kerrotaan 60-luvulla tapahtuneesta hirveästä tapahtumasta ja sen jälkiseurauksista. Vaikea laskea käsistään, jää elämään mieleen.

Jos tykkäsit näistä kirjoista, saatat tykätä tästäkin: A.S. Byatt, Riivaus. Hannah Kent, Burial Rites.

A good read about an Ontario military family in the 60s. Life seems placid on the outside but family secrets can create havoc over time.
Story was a bit long but well written.

It was too long. I could skip paragraphs and lose nothing of the story. Just. Too. Many. Words.

WOW. This book started a little slowly for me - in fact I once started it and put it down, so I had to start it all over again.

But I was pretty quickly sucked into the story and the time period. The cold war. The race to space. The Cuban Missile crisis. Life on a military base for a highly intelligent and irrepressible pre-teen girl during this very poignant time period. I could see, smell, feel, and taste the sights and sounds of this book, so well crafted is it.

The characters are so thoroughly detailed I laughed and cried with them at all of their major life events. I wanted to badly to crawl into the pages of this book and protect them that it felt frustrating to not be able to magically transport to their world to interact directly with them.

I don't want to give away any spoilers.....but just plan that during the last half to two-thirds of this book - don't make any plans. You will want to sit and read it for hours.

This is a spectacularly beautiful book; written by an author who paints with words, and who has an ear for the cadences and sounds of childhood.

Set mainly on a Royal Canadian Air Force base during the Cuban Missile Crisis, this is the story of Madeleine, her brother Mike, and their parents Jack and Mimi. It is a story of childhood and innocence and love; and of friendships and secrets and betrayal; and of jealously and perversion and murder.

This incredible book made me smile and weep and care DESPERATELY about the characters. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Beautiful book; not full 4 stars though: too many things: History, psychology, pedophilia, LGBT, self awareness, sense of guilt ... Could have done with less - and some fewer pages as well!!!

"Anyone who wants a quite life should not have been born in the twentieth century" sid Leon Trotsky
As if it could be chosen!!!!

"Can I come up"
"What for"
[...]"I've brought you something" What remains
Story. Yours. Or one like it, in which, as in a pool, you might recognize yourself. Memory. Mixed and multifarious [...] Story is memory rendered portable. Your memory, or many like yours. Unfold it like a tent. It can shelter a world

"Did you tell your father?" "No" "Good"
And Madeleine is certain now that it was good, is gratefull not to have burdened him. Her mother can take it. Women are stronger

Un romanzo complesso, che affronta tantissimi temi, ma che soprattutto fa immergere in quella che era l'atmosfera di una base dell'aviazione canadese negli anni Sessanta: la guerra fredda, la lotta agli armamenti e i progetti per essere i primi ad avventurarsi nello spazio e a toccare il suolo lunare. Jack MacCarthy sogna che il Canada possa dare il proprio apporto e si prodiga per collaborare, anche perché sente di aver fallito nel proprio dovere di pilota infortunandosi prima della Seconda Guerra Mondiale e non potendo partecipare ai combattimenti; per questo motivo trascura la propria famiglia e non si rende conto di quello che sta accadendo alla piccola Madeleine, la figlia di nove anni. E quando il dramma colpisce la piccola comunità di Centralia, sarà costretto a tacere ciò di cui è a conoscenza per un bene più grande a cui ormai non crede più.
La storia di vite traumatizzate, lesionate, distrutte, narrata con uno stile scorrevole che fa superare le oltre novecento pagine con grande naturalezza.

Quando le storie non vengono raccontate, rischiamo di smarrirci. Inciampiamo nelle bugie, si aprono lacune come assi mancanti in una passerella. Il tempo va in frantumi e, pur sforzandoci di seguirne i pezzi come sassolini nel bosco, finiamo sempre più fuori strada. Le storie vengono sostituite dalle prove. I momenti slegati dalle epoche. I reperti sottratti all’esperienza. Dimentichiamo il conforto di un filo conduttore – di come gli avvenimenti assumono le tinte di storie più antiche dei fatti stessi. Perdiamo la memoria. Questo può far ammalare una persona. Questo può far ammalare il mondo.

Quando muore un genitore scompare un pianeta, e il cielo notturno non sarà mai più lo stesso. Questo, indipendentemente da quanto siamo adulti. Quando poi perdiamo anche l'altro, è come se restassimo perennemente senza una specie di tetto - addio riparo invisibile, prima linea di difesa tra noi e la mortalità.

Emotional and exhausting! I cried 42 times (give or take) and just about three the book at the wall a couple of times. But, I'm a better person for having read this epic novel.