Bravo Ann Marie MacDonald, bravo! Over 800 pages and I was engrossed from start to finish. I don't usually take time to write reviews or make recommendations, but this one merits it all. If you enjoy complex novels, I highly recommend this one.

4.5 stars round up. A tad too long but very enjoyable and readable. Mix of espionage, loyalty, cold war and repositioning of Nazi war criminals in Canada using them to further US rocket technology. Family ties and dynamics, the love between a father and daughter , friendships and trust. Lots of 1950 artifact references which was fun to remember.

Książka totalna. Psychologia bohaterów tutaj to jest coś kosmicznego, książka potrafi wywołać uczucie nostalgii, powrotu do beztroski, by potem uderzyć w człowieka złością, bezsilnością i smutkiem. To jest przemyślane, to jest ważne, to jest nieheteronormatywne (nie jest to plus/minus, ale wzmiankuję, bo sama lubię też sięgać świadomie po coś z moją reprezentacją), to jest trudne jak cholera, ale jeśli tworzyć tło i bohaterów, to tylko w ten sposób.

19 NOV 2020 - well-written and well-characterized. This novel will touch your soul in ways you did not know were possible. I do recommend it with one reservation - do not allow yourself to be turned away by the number of pages - the book turns the pages itself.

So, so weighty. At critical junctures the experience is like bathing in astringent. Only, the astringent seeps in and soaks one's soul.

MacDonald's first work, Fall on Your Knees, is a remarkable feat and remains one of my favorite six or seven novels of all time. This isn't quite that, but it remains one of the thirty or forty most significant books I've ever read. It is difficult to read, more so than that first book---not in the sense that Finnegan's Wake is difficult, say, or the Gilgamesh, but difficult in the way that confronting hard truths is difficult. It is not so breath-stoppingly beautiful in its conclusion as Fall on Your Knees, either. It asks more and gives less, but it is still a nearly perfect partner in the experience of reading a book. Wonderful. And terrifying.

I picked this up at Costco and was 100 or so pages into it when I took it out to the garbage. I was expecting a murder mystery set during the cold war. What I found was a slow starting book written from each individual characters perspective. (I actually liked the different voices.) That turned into some sick storey of an 8 year old child and a teacher who got his students to participate in sex acts. You knew something fishy was going on and then POW a paragraph later you have a visual image in your mind you would never have wished to be there. It doesn’t matter what happens next for me…. I don’t knowingly ingest poison and keep doing so to see how it all turns out.

So well written. I accidentally read spoilers, and after learning that there is sexual abuse of a minor, I needed to put the book aside. Just didn’t want to live through the loss of innocence for such a lively and imaginative girl.

Ann-Marie MacDonald writing captures my attention. A great story teller interesting characters and one who is unafraid to tackle the complexity of society If this were my first book I had read by this author, I probably would have given it five stars. But, I read "Fall on your Knees" first and this does not compare well to it in either the voice or the story. Others will tell you what it the story is about, then you can decide if it is for you, I will say that I struggled with the changing voices and the main character, Madeline. But only in reference to her previous work. There are many themes working; sexual abuse, war (politics), and family life. I am not sure how they all tie together in this book. But what I love about this author's writing is that she writes unafraid and with conviction. It is easy to be critical once one has seen brilliance, while "The way the Crow flies"is not quite at the level of "Fall on your Knees" It is still one of the better books I read this year.

Probably one of the greatest books i have read in 10 years. So gripping and so 'non-flashy'. Set in Canada, it makes it even more interesting to me, with many plot twists throughout.

This one took a while to read, obviously due to the length, but also because I was dreading what I knew was coming. It was one of those books that's just so sad...It makes me wonder how many secrets people carry with them and how the smallest lie can change everything. Also, I like her writing style, the way she switches perspectives, and the look into a life of an air force family.


"If you move around all your life, you can't find where you come from on a map. All those places where you lived are just that: places. You don't come from any of them; you come from a series of events, without the counterpane of place to muffle the knowledge of how unlikely we are. Almost not born at every turn. Without a place, events slow-tumbling through time become your roots. Stories shading into one another. You come from a plane crash. From a war that brought your parents together. Tell the story, gather the events, repeat them. Pattern is a matter of upkeep. Otherwise the weave relaxes back to threads picked up by birds to make their nest. Repeat, or the story will fall and all the king's horses and all the king's men...Repeat, and cradle the piece carefully, or events will scatter like marbles on a wooden floor."

Upea kirja, aivan täydellinen romaani!

I am absolutely blown away by this book. Epic! 810 pages enthralled me from beginning to end. I was both intrigued and heartbroken; I cared about the characters: Madeleine, Jack, Mimi,Rickey, Colleen, Mr. Froelich. The Cold War '60's was a perfect backdrop, but it was so much more than just a backdrop - it breathed life and honor and doubt and purpose and false hope and tragedy into each of the characters. I grieved a lot -- for the kids and the loss of their innocence, for Jack who discovered honor is not what it seems, for Mimi who tried so hard to be everything she felt she was supposed to be, for poor innocent Claire, for poor Ricky who didn't stand a chance, and especially for Madeleine who ultimately discovered the "truth" she repressed for so long. Wow!