Contemporary
Hinterland By L.M Brown Book Review
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BOOK DETAILSTitle:- Hinterland Author:- L.M Brown Genres:- Contemporary Pages:- 325 Language:- English Publisher:- Fomite Press Publishing Date:- 23/10/2020
SUMMARY OF THE BOOK |
“The abandonment was the worst cruelty.”
The story opens with a very caring father Nicholas Giovanni, a taxi driver living with his five year old daughter Kate and her mother Kathleen in the same house where he grew up and in the neighborhood who knew him as a child, teenager and now as a father. He is that kind of an over-protective parent that even we’d grown up with but the thing that sets him apart from other parents is that he is trying to save his daughter from her own mother. With such a powerful opening and the enigma around Kathleen the story proceeds further and an accident in his neighborhood results in a comeback of his old flame, Ina. But it’s interesting to note that Nicholas had changed a lot and his life revolves around his only daughter and sick wife (her illness had been revealed after some pages, so far we know that she has some mood swings issue). Just like real life people all the characters in this story had a past which shaped their present and the way they’ll react to future events.
There has been some big revelations as the story proceeds further and the plot really thickens with each chapter. The language is lucid and pace is good. The story is addictive and in a way it’s un-put-down-able book because there is lot of things happening and the omniscient narration lets you dive into private thoughts, narrating secret or hidden events.
The author had very skillfully portrayed the different type of motherly love- one mother who meddled the love life of her daughter, the other who aged so quickly because she was concerned for her son. The one who subconsciously raised a bully and the one who isn’t there for the longest part of her daughter’s life but whose absence spoke for her love and regret. The one who couldn’t had one herself but loved the one kid that crossed her path.
Apart from that, the way Schizophrenia has been dealt without any presumptions is praiseworthy.
We even saw the different shades of love, the love that was torn apart and again blossomed in hotel rooms where the lovers traveled back in time without letting their present stop them. The love of a lonely girl trying to find someone who’ll listen to her without any judgments or pity. The love of a bully for a girl he used to bully.
The way these different themes of – motherly love, haunted past, father’s concerns, forbidden love and Schizophrenia have been intermingled set forth a great tale. The ending had some unexpected turns of events and also the fact that it’s an open ending gives reader a lot to think about. I am yet to figure out how this novel will end for me. Indeed, the author had done a marvelous job in portraying real life characters.
