Title: The Castaways
Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
First sentence: Because the accident occurred out on the water and not on the land that fell under his jurisdiction, it was unusual that the Chief was the first one to find out.
My summary/thoughts: This is the story of 8 friends - 4 couples - Tess and Greg, Jeff and Delilah, Ed and Andrea, Phoebe and Addison. They all live on the island of Nantucket - a community where everyone knows everyone and nobody's business remains private for long.
The story opens with the death of Tess and Greg. They had gone sailing to celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary - an anniversary that they had fought hard to reach over the last year. Nobody could believe they had drowned - especially the six friends they left behind.
I love the way the story is told rotating around the survivors - so you are not just getting one point of view - but everyone's. It alternates between how they are dealing with the present and what happened in the past, what decisions they did or did not make, that shaped this present. The death of this couple hits them all hard - some because of guilty secrets - some because of what ifs. They all deal with their grief differently.
Over the course of this book, each character really becomes more and more real. I was afraid when I first started reading - because of the 8 main characters - and the way the story moved around - that I was going to have trouble maintaining who was who. But it wasn't long before I realized I wasn't having to 'think' about who was who anymore. I had come to know each one of them.
Elin Hilderbrand was a new-to-me author and I can't wait to read more of her work!
Read an excerpt of The Castaways.
About the author: Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three young children. She grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket. She is the author of ten novels. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa. (from her website)
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The Castaways
Publisher/Publication Date: Little, Brown & Company, July 2009
ISBN: 978-0-316-04389-2
359 pages
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11 comments:
At the beginning of the book, I wrote myself a little note linking each couple together. I referred to it a little at first and then I threw it away. I enjoyed this book too.
I haven't seen a negative review of this book yet. Glad to hear you enjoyed it, too. I snagged a copy at BEA, and I can't wait to read it.
--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric
So glad you enjoyed this! Elin's other books are great too!!
This is my current read. More than half way through. Hope to have a review very soon.
I enjoyed getting to know the characters through their thoughts and learning about events from different view points. The rotation style worked well for this novel.
I am glad you enjoyed this book, Kristi!
I really like books with multiple points of view, particularly when it's done well. I'm adding this to my need-to-read list.
This sounds like such a great book. I love Elin Hilderbrand, my favorite so far is Barefoot. To me she just make her characters come alive, like there some of your best friends. Thanks for the review.
This review is great. It really makes me want to read the book.
wandanamgreb (at) gmail (dot) com
Thanks for the great review. I'd like to read some Hilderbrand now!
Thanks for the great review. It definitely peaked my interest in reading this book.
Thank you,
Christine
womackcm@sbcglobal.net
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