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Cargando... The Promise of Rain (2010)por Donna Milner
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. A good story is clearly in safe hands with this author, she writes with a quiet confidence, with an eye for small detail. She brings together different stories from different times to converge neatly at the end. Both the bereavement and the POW strands of the plot were heartrending. Definitely an author I would read more by. The Promise of Rain is set in 1940s Hong Kong during WWII and in 1960s Vancouver. Howard, a young Canadian soldier deployed to the Far East shortly before Pearl Harbor, is captured and imprisoned by the Japanese. He returns home replete with the emotional scars of war; but he conceals a secret, too, of something that happened in Hong Kong. When his wife, Lucy, dies unexpectedly, his family is threatened by separation. Ethie, his young daughter, is determined to uncover the truth behind her father’s silent absence. What I Liked: Milner handles the subject of war sensitively and matter-of-factly without getting bogged down in emotion. She uses “the promise of rain” repeatedly throughout the novel, personifying rain as a cleansing agent for the “blood soaked earth” (263) of war and also for the shroud of secrecy which engulfs Howard. What I Disliked: The plot was a little contrived for my taste. Lucy dies under very bizarre circumstances. And Ethie, a young child, almost singlehandedly uncovers her father’s long-guarded secrets to save her family from separation. A decent read in the end. Recommended to readers of historical fiction (WWII era), and readers who enjoy an optimistic story of family. This book has the most unassuming front cover. I nearly passed it by. It is the most wonderful and interesting story of a man who goes to WW2 to fight in Hong Kong against the Japanese. This is a part of World War 2 that I knew very little about. I gained much insight into this part of history. The story is told from the perspective of the Canadian Soldier,Howard, in the 1940's and switches between that time and the early 1960's. The story also is written from his young daughter Ethie's point of view. Howard goes to war a married young man, and returns with emotional baggage, among other things. This is a story of how his young family and wife are affected by his going to war. I found it was well written story, with well devoloped characters, and enough suspense to keep me turning me the pages. It's a story too of the redeeming power of love. Wonderful book. Ist es ein Zufall, dass Lucy Coulter am selben Tag stirbt wie Marilyn Monroe? Ihr Todestag jedenfalls ist für Lucys Familie ein tragischer Tag: Warum musste die junge Frau auf so mysteriöse Weise ums Leben kommen? Doch ihr Tod zwingt ihren Mann Howard auch, sich endlich der Antwort einer Frage zu stellen: Warum hat er ihr all die Jahre nie die Wahrheit über seine Vergangenheit gesagt? Der tragische Tod von Lucy Coulter setzt in Donna Milners neuem Roman eine bewegende Familiengeschichte in Gang, die am 5. August 1962 ihren Anfang nimmt, in Rückblenden die Erlebnisse Howards in Hongkong während der japanischen Besatzung im Zweiten Weltkrieg und von Schuld, Liebe und der einenden Kraft der Wahrheit erzählt. Ein lohnendes Buch mit spannenden Schilderungen der Kriegsjahre in Hongkong.
The Promise of Rain, Donna Milner's second novel, is similar to her first, After River, in its exploration of war and family secrets, but the conflict has shifted from Vietnam to the Second World War, and to the plight of prisoners of war in Hong Kong. Milner alternates between the horrors experienced by young Canadian Howard Coulter during his years in the PoW camp and the problems developing years later, in 1962, when Howard's wife Lucy dies. His children are crushed and bewildered by the loss of their mother in mysterious circumstances. The point of view is excellent..... The Promise of Rain uses straightforward, even gentle, language that serves to heighten the awfulness of the tragedies unfolding in the two time frames. Milner never over-dramatizes. And while she provides a full picture of the cruelty human beings can inflict on one another, she does so with a powerful restraint. At the heart of the novel is the idea that ordinary people can do both terrible and wonderful things. They can hate, and they can love. And hope is essential. The combination of compassion and suspense makes this novel impossible to put down. Listas de sobresalientes
Ethie Coulter was born after her father Howard returned from the war in 1945. She never knew him as he was before, never knew that he had been an open, loving man and a devoted husband. When his wife dies in bizarre circumstances, Howard must take on the burden of looking after eleven-year-old Ethie and her two older brothers. Why, Ethie wonders, is he so silent and withdrawn? Howard Coulter was one of two thousand Canadian soldiers sent to the Far East a month before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Surviving the fierce battle for Hong Kong, he became a POW, moving from camp to notorious camp, watching his friends die of disease, starvation and worse. Yet Howard carries more than the physical and mental scars inflicted by his captors. Something happened in Hong Kong, a secret that he has carried for nearly two decades. Ethie, inquisitive and fearless, will be the one to work her way towards the truth and help her father come to terms with the past. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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Parallel zu dieser Handlung wird die Zeit Howards in Hongkong erzählt. Zum einen erfährt man von der großen Liebe zwischen Howard und Lucy, zum anderen von den schlimmen Kriegsereignissen in Asien. Auch das Geheimnis Howards wird aufgedeckt. Dieses Geheimnis kostet letztendlich zwei Menschen das Leben, doch ich frage mich, warum es überhaupt ein Geheimnis war. Es ist doch eigentlich unspektakulär und Howard hätte es problemlos erzählen können.
Mir gefällt an diesem Buch besonders die Personenzeichnung bis in die Nebenfiguren. Der Junge Kipper mit Down-Syndrom, die Tante Mildred und alle anderen werden sehr deutlich und plastisch, nahezu liebevoll dargestellt. Das Buch selbst ist nicht schlecht, aber hundertprozentig gefallen hat es mir nicht. ( )