Conflicting read

"And I knew at last what I had wanted to know since I had met her: that there was no such thing as simple as the storyteller’s love in her, that love was a tangled measure of a thousand different things, and that sometimes there was a word called love that she knew and understood, and then sometimes it was gone, and she could not master it, and being unmastered, she longed to let it go, and then thinking of it, it came again."

Another beautifully written but structurally chaotic novel from Claire North. Of the books I have read so far, 15 Lives of Harry August was the best structured; the others (including William Abbey) have circled repetitively through the plot and had unfocused antagonists who never quite materialised any teeth.

It is well worth a read if you are a fan of contemporary spec fic with a literary edge, esp on the British scene, but maybe has more appeal to North fans than new readers. ( )

I loved The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, and I thought the writing in this book was excellent, but boy, it was a lot of talking... Not dialogue so much. Just talking. ( )

“I was cursed in Natal, in 1884. Cursed by the truth and by blood. The shadow took to me and we have been together since.”

Part sci-fi, part historical fiction, part thriller. Fully mind-blowing.

William Abbey stands by as a black boy, Langa, is savagely murdered by the ‘civilised’ white men during the British colonisation of South Africa. For his cowardice, Langa’s mother curses Abbey, who becomes a truth-speaker, endlessly pursued by Langa’s shadow. When Langa is near, Abbey is forced to reveal the truth hidden in the hearts of those in his vicinity. When Langa makes contact, someone Abbey loves is killed.

From here-on Abbey is chased around the globe as he attempts to keep a distance between himself and the unyielding shadow of Langa. Whilst on the run, Abbey learns that he is not the only person carrying this curse, and that those in great power would do absolutely anything to own a truth-speaker.

This was such an unusual read. It was complex and sometimes confusing, but extremely gripping.The author covers not just the British colonisation of South Africa and India, but also the discrimination against immigrants in America and the hatred spreading across Europe, all culminating in the front-line in France during the First World War.

At first, I found the slow pace a slight irritation, but soon realised that the pace matched that of Langa, relentlessly traveling over and through any terrain, never stopping, always moving. Some weeks after finishing the book, the story has stayed with me, frequently haunting my thoughts, a little like Langa in the pursuit of William Abbey. ( )

I got halfway through and just didn't care, so I gave up. In the early twentieth century, William Abbey is an Englishman who witnesses the brutal murder of a black boy in Africa and does nothing to stop it. He is cursed by the boy's mother, and the ghost of the boy follows Abbey wherever he goes, forcing him to see and utter the truth in people's hearts. If he travels quickly, the can stay away from the ghost, but if the ghost catches up, he slowly slips into insanity as he shouts out the truths of all the people around him. The British government forces him to spy for them.

The premise is interesting, but the book is long and just really didn't seem to be going anywhere, so I stopped reading. ( )

Claire North doet niet liever dan een situatie scheppen die haar protagonisten toestaat wat meer van de menselijke drijfveren te zien dan we in het echte leven te zien krijgen. Bij Harry August was dat wedergeboorte, bij Huid een geest die van lichaam naar lichaam kon rijzen, bij 84k de openhartigheid van Pietje de dood, ...
Ook William Abbey is een speciaal geval: de schaduw van een overleden kind volgt hem als zijn persoonlijke vloek en wanneer die nabij is, kijkt William los door zijn medemens heen en ziet hij de ultieme waarheden die in hun hart verscholen zitten.
North gebruikt die context om de lezer mee te nemen op een spannende historische trip naar het kruitvat dat de wereld was in de aanloop naar WOI. De vloek van William Abbey staat haar toe de motieven van spionnen, heersers of de man in de straat kraakhelder te schetsen.
Zo krijg je een bruisende mengelmoes van spanning, een streepje fantasy, existentiële vragen en kritiek op de werking van Naties en de veronachtzaming van de gewone man.
Ambitieus project, dat ze tot een goed einde weet te brengen: weet dat er - natuurlijk - ook nog liefde en dood aan te pas komt en waarheid. Veel waarheid. Maar wat is dat?
We zijn fan van North en zijn dat na dit boek nog steeds. Niet haar vlotste of eenvoudigste, maar alleszins een gedurft en lezenswaardig boek. Chapeau. ( )