Its my turn on the tour today to tell you about this hard hitting read.
Detangling the plot:
Emma Bowen has never had a close relationship with her mother, barely speaking with her in the last years of her life. But after her mother’s death, Emma finds something that might just explain the distance between them.
Discovering letters between her mother and grandmother, it seems to Emma that her mother has always been difficult.
As she searches for answers about her own childhood, Emma is drawn into the mystery of her mother’s enigmatic life. The more she finds, the more lost she feels, but Emma is determined to uncover her mother’s past, and the secrets held within it, whatever the cost.
An enthralling story of three women, generations apart, linked by one terrible tragedy.
Bobs and Books honest review: Oh my goodness. Where to begin. From the very difficult opening to a dramatic ending this is one powerful and moving read. The subject matters are handled so delicately, which makes it even more believable, accurate and emotional.
The Girl in the Maze very early on is explained as a painting, I particularly like how different characters perceive it and react to it so differently to one another. However, it really does become a symbol across the entire novel. Different characters cant really work out the image just as much as they cant figure out the history of this family. Family links are such a strong theme in this and its surprising, and thought provoking. Touching, fragile. Does contain some triggers.
A story that absolutely needs to be told and heard.
About the author:
Cathy Hayward trained as a journalist and edited a variety of trade publications, several of which were so niche they were featured on Have I Got News for You. She then moved into the world of PR and set up an award-winning communications agency. Devastated and inspired in equal measure by the death of her parents in quick succession, Cathy completed The Creative Writing Programme with New Writing South out of which emerged her debut novel The Girl in the Maze about the experience of mothering and being mothered. It won Agora Books’ Lost the Plot Work in Progress Prize 2020 and was longlisted for the Grindstone Literary Prize 2020. When she’s not writing (or reading) in her local library, Cathy loves pottering in second-hand bookshops, hiking and wild camping. She lives in Brighton – sandwiched between the Downs and the sea – with her husband, three children, and two rescue cats – one of whom thinks he’s a dog.
Out NOW.
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