PR copy provided by the publisher

I posted my wrap up too prematurely yesterday, as I ended up finishing this one in bed last night! Oh well. I really enjoyed this one, despite a few parts which dragged or didn’t necessarily feel like they fit the overall story. There are three sections, one featuring ‘L’Inconnue de la Seine’, one a toymaker whose son drowns, and one a young woman with cystic fibrosis. I loved the sections with the two women, but the toymaker ones didn’t captivate me as much.
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The theme running through the book is of course drowning, as well as the death mask that was made from L’Inconnue de la Seine which went on to become the face of CPR mannequins. Some of this book is rooted in fact, which is fascinating, and then in other sections Leipciger exerts a lot of creative license. I really like this kind of mash up! Especially as the storyline she imagined for L’Inconnue, who died around 1899, was a queer one. It was tragic, but I just love a good melancholic story!
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Even though all three strands are set about 50 years apart, I think Leipciger ties them together really nicely. If you enjoy quiet, sad stories then I’d definitely recommend this one!