I really wanted to like this one. It started off so promising. Great atmosphere and wonderful descriptions along with a story that I was interested in. Things progressed well for the first 2/3 of the book, presenting small snippets of family history that sort of wove together in a way and I thought it was all going to make sense in the end, like some kind of epiphany. It didn't. Instead, the novel wound up feeling like a series of short vignettes with no real purpose. There wasn't a thoughtful ending that made sense to me or impacted me in any way. Instead, things just sort of dropped off.

The writing was good and lyrical and I can understand why this novel has praise in that sense. But the construction of the narrative was just less than I expected.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *