∎ PDF Gratis The World Before Us A Novel Aislinn Hunter 2015553418521 Books

The World Before Us A Novel Aislinn Hunter 2015553418521 Books

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The World Before Us A Novel Aislinn Hunter 2015553418521 Books

I have to give this book five stars because I loved it and that's the basis of Amazon reviews. I really enjoyed reading every page and looked forward to coming back to the book after a break. The device of the voices of the ghosts was particularly effective in reinforcing the tenuous link between past and future.

From a critical point of view though there are some problems. The book just feels incomplete. There are simply too many things unresolved at the end. The central McGuffin - what happened to N- - is solved, but in the end that was not the interesting problem. The authorial end note indicates how this may have come to be the case but one is left at the end wanting more resolution. Not everything needs to be resolved, especially given the nature of this novel, but certainly more than is.


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The World Before Us A Novel Aislinn Hunter 2015553418521 Books Reviews

I had a hard time following along, so many stories and characters! The ending just happened and was quite weak!
Sorry just had a hard time reading this book and only finished it because it is our Bookclub pick, andI had too!
Wonderful reading! I loved the way the author weaves back and forth between the present and the events of 1877. The longing to remember and to try to maintain a sense of living was very expertly represented and very emotional also. This is not a traditional ghost story or a traditional mystery to be solved either. This is a very personal and thoughtful foray into describing what possibly lies beyond death.
Although this book takes some serious concentration as far as keeping all of the characters and eras straight, it is well worth the read. Hunter's prose is of a high calibre. She captures her characters' emotions beautifully. Her vivid descriptions draw you in to the point where you feel like you are breathing in the smells, feeling the textures of what is being touched, drinking in the rich scenery of both exterior and interior spaces. There's a nice little element of mystery that pulls you through 'til the end. To get the most out of this book, it's best if you can read in large chunks of time.
As is true of all great books, A World Before Us deserves and rewards a second reading (although a first reading will suffice). Hunter's language is tight and poetic and her characters are full and rewarding. She handles supremely well the alternating narrative voices of the spirits who accompany Jane Standen as she searches for the mystery of "N" So much more positive to say about this book and its author. If I had a vote, this would be the 2015 Mann Booker Prize winner.
The revelations come slipped casually in what one thinks will be a mere background phrase. Jane's character and motivations are complex. The resolutions you expect to appear don't, those you think will remain unanswered are solved. The ghosts are a gentle, benign, and vague presense to each other, Jane is unaware of them. It is a really beautiful novel about guilt, acceptance, coping, and living.
The role of memory, of remembrance , is explored in a circular narrative that draws the reader in. It encourages the reader to piece together the lives of the characters, and to consider if we can ever remember enough. I loved this book. I was entranced by the modern Jane, the Victorian Nan, but especially the presences that imbue the book with life and poignancy. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in memory and its incompleteness.
We begin with the disappearance of Lily, a five-year-old girl who while out on a hike vanishes from her sitter, Jane Standen, who is 15 and who is minding her while Lily's father has gone ahead on their excursion. Warning that is never resolved. (There they go! Headin' fer the exits.)

Ah, but for those who remain I shall elaborate a bit.Jane, now 34, is losing her job at a small London museum closing for lack of funds; she commits a compulsive act at the closing lecture, and without telling those who care about her flees back to the town where Lily disappears. Hunkering down in an inn, she returns to a research project she's long worked on, in which she attempts to reconstruct another disappearance--that of young woman known only as "N." N had disappeared from an insane asylum in the 1870s, accompanying two of the inmates who have forayed off the grounds. Is she an inmate, an employee, what? Ah, but that you shall learn.

Jane's story in the present alternates with the Victorian story told by a series of disembodied Victorian voices (ghosts? voices in Jane's head?--you decide, dear reader) in a flowing narrative that curls around nooks, pokes into crannies, and furrows into archives.

Elaborate, sometimes funny; sometimes touching, it's a complicated pleasure, and I can pretty much predict you won't say the ending is rushed.
I have to give this book five stars because I loved it and that's the basis of reviews. I really enjoyed reading every page and looked forward to coming back to the book after a break. The device of the voices of the ghosts was particularly effective in reinforcing the tenuous link between past and future.

From a critical point of view though there are some problems. The book just feels incomplete. There are simply too many things unresolved at the end. The central McGuffin - what happened to N- - is solved, but in the end that was not the interesting problem. The authorial end note indicates how this may have come to be the case but one is left at the end wanting more resolution. Not everything needs to be resolved, especially given the nature of this novel, but certainly more than is.