I spontaneously picked up Not Forgetting the Whale because of a summer challenge at the Fanatieke Nederlandse Lezers bookclub. A lot of people were talking about the "whale book" and it piqued my interest as well. (And the ebook was cheap at the time. But I already read it! So definitely worth the €1.99 I spend). The book starts when a stranger washes up on the beach of the small town of St Piran. A day later a whale beaches.

I loved the atmosphere in the book and in the writing. The writing reminded me slightly of the movie The Grand Budapest HotelThe village and its people just brought me joy. The parts about economics, selling shorts and Cassie might not be for everyone, but I really enjoyed that as well. Sometimes it was a bit confusing when a flashback started but after a while I got used to this writing style.

Spoiler

Furthermore, it was so interesting to read about the flu pandemic in this book while an actual pandemic was still going on outside. The COVID-19 pandemic probably made me appreciate some details of this story that I otherwise would not have, like the stockpiling (though, it turns out not stockpiling toiletpaper is unrealistic but the author could not have known that in 2015), the quarantine but also the community aspect. And the strong community of St Piran really brought tears to my eyes a couple of times. And also how the kindness was shared with the people of the other village. I don't think they will forget about whale anytime soon.