DebJpole Hello all,
Sorry for such a delay between reviews! I have been reading this mammoth of a book!
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.” – A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
It’s a hot summers day on a crowded motorway. A brutal road accident occurs and breaks up old relationships but gives life to new ones.
“Accidents are terrible things: one moment everything is under our control, the next we lose that control, fate takes over and the world changes. No one can anticipate accidents and they are in many cases virtually unavoidable.”
We have Jonathan – a surgeon who is returning from a night with his mistress Abi…his wife thinks he’s elsewhere; Georgia a young actress on her way to an audition that kick start her career. We also meet Toby, a bridegroom with a secret on the way to his wedding with his best friend Barney, Patrick, a lorry driver who just wants to go home and Mary who is travelling to see her first live, some fifty years after their last meeting.
On top of this we meet Linda, Georgia’s ambitious and demanding agent and Alex and Emma – doctors at the nearest hospital and William, a farmer who watches everything unfold and becomes more involved that he could ever have imagined.
“…what an absolute disaster his life had become: all as a result of a few seconds’ misjudgement. And it hadn’t even been his misjudgement: life didn’t get much crueller than that.”
Just one second and everything that happens on that crowded motorway in a split second transforms all of those lives and more.
“Lives were ended for some, changed for ever for others; and a most powerful game of Consequences was set in train.”
Worlds are torn apart, mysteries unravel and love stories are reignited and extinguished.
But could everything that happens be for the worst? Or could it be for the best?
“That’s the thing about accidents though isn’t it?..It’s all bits of chance and fate, muddled up together.”
This story tackles everyone’s worst fear – what if something happens one day, something catastrophic and it changes our lives forever in a way that we could never have imagined?
“For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, for want of a horse the rider was lost, for want of a rider the battle was lost, for want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And ask for the want of a horseshoe nail.”
I struggled to get through part 1 of the book but in the parts of the book during the aftermath of the accident and the court case I was thoroughly drawn in. It is a chunky book though and a big old read so you’re going to need to dedicate a lot of time to reading it!
Only 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️, for me as I wasn’t completely overawed by this book and couldn’t get into it to begin with.
Check it out on Amazon!
Many thanks,
Until next time,
D x
