This must be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell
Published by Tinder Press
17th May 2016
Hardback Edition
Meet Daniel Sullivan, a man with a complicated life. A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn and a wife, Claudette, who is a reclusive ex-film star given to shooting at anyone who ventures up their driveway.
He is also about to find out
something about a woman he lost touch with twenty years ago, and this discovery
will send him off-course, far away from wife and home. Will his love for
Claudette be enough to bring him back?
It seems like forever since Maggie O’Farrell had a new book out (in fact it
was only in 2013 but that seems like forever) and I have to say I was chomping
at the bit to get my hands on a copy to review here; in fact I got my mucky
paws on one of only 50 limited editions of the book so it will always be
special in that respect.
Anyway, I digress, let us go back to the book. This book looks at a relationship from two
perpectives, that of Claudette, former actress now turned recluse, and her
husband Daniel who has many of his own issues.
When he learns something awful about a woman he once knew, Daniel feels
compelled to go on his own journey of discovery. To go back to that time twenty years ago and
to question whether he could have done anything differently. However by doing so he runs the risk of
losing his marriage and his children, for Claudette is not the sort of woman to
wait around for any man. In fact, no-one
even knows where she is, or even if she is alive, having faked her own disappearance decades
ago to escape the media hype that followed her every move.
As we keep up with Claudette in Ireland, and follow Daniel on a journey that
takes him to his birthplace in America to face the family he has avoided seeing
for years, and then back to England to lay his demons to rest, we go through
both couple’s emotions as their relationship crumbles and both are left to
continue on their own pathway in life.
Can there be a reconciliation between Claudette and Daniel, or does the past
have too strong a grip on one person to ever let go and for our couple to
realise that what they need has only ever been each other?
This is certainly up there with being one of, if not my, favourite Maggie O’Farrell
novel. I love her way with words and her style of writing and I read through
this in practically one sitting. If you
haven’t discovered this fantastic writer yet, then I do recommend you do.
Happy Reading
Miss Chapter x
