Summer Reads...

Eve Green by Susan Fletcher- 4 stars ****

This was my first read of the summer, and one that I found particularly touching. It is the story of a young girl, whose mother dies when she is just eight years old, and she is sent from inner city Birmingham to live with her grandparents in the Welsh countryside. It is written in the first person, and skips from the present day back to the days when Evie (as she was then called) first arrived at Pencarreg, her grandparent's house.

Throughout the book, she talks about a shoebox that her mother never allowed her to look in when she was alive, which contains souvenirs, trinkets and notes telling of a mysterious K, her mother's only love; and Eve's father. Punished for asking her grandparents any questions about him, she uses the box that she now possesses to create her own story of what happened.
The book is well written, and contains some thought provoking descriptions of events in Eve's life, such as her first kiss:

'Kisses open doors, I've noticed. That one gesture can unlock secrets, ease open feelings. It can't be prevented - these kisses just are. It's how they work. They break into basements you never knew you had.
But kisses can close doors, too - a kiss goodbye, a consolation prize - and in a sense I think these are the better kind. They're safer. Less risky. You know where you stand with a closing kiss. You can turn from them, inhale, smile to yourself and move on: such kisses make you stronger. And such kisses are my speciality. I'd throw them out to boys and then walk away. Until Daniel, I scarcely knew the other kind.'

The way that Susan Fletcher depicts Eve's life is very realistic, and I could really associate with her way of thinking. The book, essentially, is a series of character studies through Eve's eyes, and there are a few mysteries that become unravelled as the plot continues. Even at the end though, the answers are not handed to the reader on a plate, and you have to do a certain amount of deciphering to come to the overall conclusion.

I was surprised upon researching Susan Fletcher that this is her first book, and that she is only thirty one years old, as it reads like a classic that has been shaped by a much more mature novelist. Eve is twenty nine in the present day of the story, so perhaps because the author is a similar age to her lead character she could draw upon her own life experiences in order to make the protagonist's voice so convincing. Her manipulation of words creates beautiful descriptions that despite tackling common subjects seem fresh and innovative:

'Love, he mumbled into my collarbone, was a funny sort of thing. And isn't it? The things it makes us do. And the things we feel love for - it has no logic to it. Love is as varied and unpredictable as the rain is: it comes in constant summer drizzles, or sudden, unforeseen storms that make rivers burst their banks and Cornish fishing boats rock and spill and lose their crew in the Atlantic. It patters into you, or it washes you clean of your senses. It can drip or come in a downpour. It is strange, manipulative. So perhaps Gerry was half correct - it is a funny thing.'

The relationships that Eve has are powerful, mainly because she is always seen as being a bit of a loner, and there are a few throughout the book that created quite intense reactions of empathy from me, particularly the friendship she has with Billy Macklin, who all the village people say is 'mad'.

But I don't want to give too much away, it is a clever and well thought out story, and one which is well worthy of a read.