Brought up
with lies, deceit and deception Tooly Zylberberg now lives in a little village on
the border between Wales and England, where she owns a bookshop. To be honest
she is regretting buying the shop already, because she was raised not to
connect with people or possessions. She used to travel from place to place and
now she finds herself here in this little village. The only person she speaks
to regularly is Fogg, the young man who helps her out in the shop and who
thinks of himself as a Parisian, even though he ever left the village.
Published
in 2014
The
bookshop is a nice little world, but in the back of her mind Tooly always
thinks it may lot last and she could go somewhere else, not bound by people,
places or time.
The she
receives an email from somebody she knew in New York, who tells her her father
is very ill. Despite not wanting to, Tooly leaves for New York only to find out
nothing she always thought was true, is true, and all the people in her life
played different roles than she always thought.
The story
alternates between three times. We see Tooly in 1988 when she is ten years old
and living in Bangkok with Paul, her father. He works with computers for
different American embassies all over the world so every year Tooly has to get
acquainted again with a new home and a new school and new people.
In 1999
Tooly has moved to New York where she lives with Russian emigrant Humphrey, who
somehow played a huge role in her upbringing. Venn and Sarah are also important
for her, although they are not always there. Tooly crosses the entire city on
foot and meets student Duncan, who becomes her boyfriend.
In 2011 she
lives in Wales in her bookshop and she gets the email from Duncan. She does not
know what she will find in New York, but what she does find is nothing like she
expected.
In a
masterly way Tom Rachman knows how to twist and bring the different threads of
this story together. So slowly, bit by bit we get to know what happened with
Tooly and which roles the different people in her life played.
Tooly is
both strong and vulnerable and that is what makes her very likeable. Very well
done is the way Tom Rachman knows how to make Tooly’s voice different at
different ages, yet it stays recognizable. The woman in 2011 is not the same as
the child in 1988, but the core is the same. That is well written.
When
everything turns out to be different than Tooly always thought, she does not
despair or collapse. She uses the debris of her life to built a new life for
herself. Not based on the lies she always believed, but based on what she knows
to be true and that is how she can continue.
I do not
really know how to express how much I enjoyed The rise and fall of great
powers. I loved it, the idea was interesting and the writing was beautiful and
often very witty.
I think
this book will end up in my top-3 of 2014, I will be very surprised if it does
not.
I don't always like jumping around from one time period to another, but it sounds like it works in this book. And the fact that you're already putting it in your top 3 for the year says a lot. Great review!
ReplyDeleteThe time-jumping is done very well here, it is always clear which time it is. I loved this book, I really did. I immediatly bought his first book as well and I will read that very soon!
DeleteKind regards,