From the publisher:
Three generations of women. Three generations worth of secrets. Will a cache of letters from beyond the grave hold the key to unravelling them all? The answer to that question lies at the heart of this addictive and atmospheric novel from the author of The House of Brides.
Growing up, the Anderson sisters could not have been more different. Susie, the wild one, had an adventurous life while Camilla— Mills—followed a safer path. When Susie suddenly dies, Mills falls apart. Until she receives a bundle of mysterious letters from her estranged sister to be read in the case of her death. Each letter instructs her to visit a place special to Susie, both to spread her ashes but also to uncover some truths Susie has long kept hidden from her family.
Their mother Margaret has secrets of her own. When living in Swinging Sixties London, she too made a decision about her life that not only haunts her, but will reverberate through the generations.
One family, three very different women. What choices and secrets connect them? In this novel of truth and lies, concealment and regret, Jane Cockram flips the looking glass to expose our true face, revealing the deep lines of deception that can run through families and how the people we love the most often have the most to hide.
https://amzn.to/3Aq33Zj
This multi-generational story of family secrets by Cockram (The House of Brides) centers on two sisters; Camilla, the “good” daughter who follows the rules, and Susie, the rebel. When Susie suddenly dies, she leaves behind a series of letters for Camilla, instructing her to scatter Susie’s ashes in the various places she visited one summer in 1998. Camilla honors her sister’s wishes even though it puts a strain on her marriage.
Three generations of women in this family have skeletons in their closets, all involving another family, the Rowes. Susie met David Rowe that fateful summer in London, followed him to a tiny island in France, where she met his girlfriend Isabelle, then met Henri and fell in love. Things ended badly, and now Susie’s letters have sent Camilla on a trail that has threatened to reveal things her mother and grandmother never wanted exposed. Turns out there is a lot of juicy history between the families, and all is eventually revealed.
Verdict: This somewhat convoluted story gets bogged down by jumping time periods, but ultimately reaches a satisfying conclusion. Should appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty or Celeste Ng.
©Library Journal, 2022
3/2022 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
THE WAY FROM HERE by Jane Cockram. Harper (March 1, 2022). ISBN: 978-0062939326. 320p.
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