More holiday reading

This extremely blurry picture is the cover of The Rain Before It Falls by Jonathan Coe. Apt really, as it was my holiday read during our rainy week in Cornwall.

When Gill's aunt Rosamond dies suddenly she leaves a mystery behind her in the form of some photographs and tapes she has recorded in the final hours before her death and it is left for Gill to solve it.

I enjoyed this book so much. It's written from two different perspectives, something which is often attempted but tricky to execute. Usually one voice is weaker than the others, but here the balance is just right.

This is the opening paragraph:

'When the telephone rang Gill was outside, raking the leaves into coppery piles, while her husband shovelled them on to a bonfire. It was Sunday afternoon in late autumn. She ran into the kitchen when she heard its shrilling, and immediately felt the warmth of inside enfold her, not having realised, until then, how chilly the air had become. There would most likely be frost that night.'

So simply written but amazingly descriptive. I read it and was there, I know exactly the feeling of being outside in the autumn air, and the warmth that hits you when you run indoors again.

The mechanic of Rosamond's story being told posthumously, in her own voice, via the tapes was haunting, and the mystery Gill had to unravel was compelling. I liked the comparison between mother and daughter relationships, in the past and the present. This is a sad book, full of melancholy, but extremely moving and it held me rapt throughout.