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Bezig met laden... Water, Stone, Heart: A Novel (1963)door Will North
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. I absolutely loved this book. I loved the characters, Nicki, Andrew and in particular the little girl, Lee. Even though the "event" was foreshadowed heavily, the suspense was enormous. I had to finish the book earlier than I had planned because I just could not put it down. I loved the fact that it was based on the actual Boscastle flood. This book was recommended by a friend. I felt mixed about it. The characters were well-drawn but very stereotypical. I loved the character of Lee/Lily. At times the book felt like a cheap Harlequin Romance. At other times it was very technical with the information about building stone walls. The facts about the real flood were almost unbelievable! ”Like many Americans, Andrew had bounced around from one part of the country to the other, wherever school and work led him. When someone asked him where he was from, he never knew how to answer. Where he was born? Where he’d lived the longest? Where he’d lived last? And there was a related question, one he suspected was more important still: Where did he belong?” p.184 Andrew finds his life crumbling after his divorce, so decides to leave the states during his summer break from teaching architecture, and take a hands-on class in Cornwall on the building of rock walls. His heart is gripped by this activity, and also by the eight-year-old neighbor girl, some other of the locals, and the area, itself. This was a very interesting story wrapped around the actual natural disaster of the Boscastle flood of 2004. Will North made the setting come alive. The characters perhaps a bit less so. But overall, a good novel in which I learned a lot. Nursing a broken heart, an America architect heads to England to learn to build stone walls and in the process learns about himself. Andrew Stratton's wife left him for another man, so to get away he signs up for a weeklong class in rural, small town England. Befriended by a young local girl named Lee, who introduces him to the beautiful quick-tongued Nicola, who is also nursing some personal wounds. Whitty sarcastic jabs at each other seem to be thier specialty. Will the two of them get past thier own problems in order to help the other out? And will they do it before catastrophe strikes the small town. A great fast-paced read, that kept me wondering what will happen next. My only complaint is one character had too many past issues, thought it was a bit overkill. One personal tragedy would have been enough for this light-hearted story, but still recommend the read! geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Fiction.
Literature.
"North's knack for endearing characterization creates a memorable cast across the generations.".
"North deftly creates an enchanting and touching love story reminiscent of those by Nicholas Sparks.".
"If you like Nicholas Sparks, you will love Will North--he is a strong, vivid writer with a romantic's heart.".
"[A] lyrical first novel about love and loss . . . North offers vivid descriptions of the Welsh countryside, capturing its local dialect, flora and fauna, and wild weather . . . if Nicholas Sparks set a novel in North Wales, it would read a lot like this!".
"How we perceive love and acknowledge its obligations is at the core of this first novel . . . witty exchanges and fascinating descriptions . . . a joy to read.".
"North's bittersweet, romantic novel has invited some early comparisons with the bestselling work of Nicholas Sparks and Robert James Waller.".
HTML:"The Long Walk Home movingly conveys the life-changing effects of love between two middle-aged people with a lot of unshared history.".
"A brilliantly realized romance.".
HTML:Newly divorced, Andrew Stratton lives in his head and not with his heart. He teaches architectural theory but has never built a building. He writes about "The Anatomy of Livable Places"-- communities where form and material are in harmony--but has no sense of where he belongs. He is capable of deep, tender emotions but is unable to express them. When his wife leaves him for another man and excoriates his cautious nature in the process, Andrew is like a house shaken off a faulty foundation. Sifting through the rubble, he must figure out what should be salvaged and what should be scrapped. Escaping from the predictable routine of his university life in Philadelphia, Andrew travels to England and channels his pain into a weeklong course on building stone walls. In the village of Boscastle, he discovers a magical landscape of dizzying cliffs, jagged coastline, lush valleys, and hills lined with stone hedges that have stood the test of time. At the Stone Academy, Andrew immerses himself in the grueling task of piecing together rock into intricate walls. Under the tutelage of his weathered instructor, he learns there is more to laying stone than hard labor. And he soon falls under the spell of Boscastle's rhythms and quirks, which include a weekly sing-along, a museum devoted to witchcraft, and a colorful group of residents ranging from a precocious nine-year-old girl who communes with nature to an offbeat reverend who has been known to give referrals to the town witch. Moved by the warmth and connectedness of the village, Andrew begins to shed his sheltered self. But his willingness to open his heart is tested when he falls for Nicola Rhys-Jones, an American expatriate seeking to escape a history of abuse. Thorny, sarcastic, and sexy, Nicola is an artist who paints tranquility panels for hospitals. But her life before Boscastle has been anything but peaceful. As their verbal sparring veers into darker territory, Andrew grapples with his status in Boscastle. Is he just a tourist on holiday or does he now have a stake in the village that has welcomed him? Readers new to Will North's work as well as fans of The Long Walk Home will be swept away by this bittersweet novel about love, loss, and the power of nature to alter our lives. From the Hardcover edition.. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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The chapters alternate between Nicole and Andrew, at first, but the book ends mostly from Andrew's point of view.
The best writing is when North is describing the zen of rock wall building. I hate it when an author crams a character's life into a couple of pages as if to say "there, that's her background, now I can ignore developing her any further." ( )