The Anniversary

by Hilary Boyd

[zooloo1983]

I am writing this with the tears still fresh on my face as this book has just completely moved me. It is safe to say that when Hilary’s next book comes out in 2019 I will be the first person to want to read it and I need to catch up with her back catalogue! I flew through this book today, I read a couple hundred pages without even realising it, I couldn’t put this down. An insight into this family, the “drama” unfolding, watching and waiting for the light to come to us.

With this book, I got the ending I wanted but the journey it took to get there was one of a heartbreak, and realisation that life is just too short. One of my favourite thing about this book was how it was not two twenty-somethings trying to resolve their life and find meaning. This was Stella and Jack, in their sixties! They were married before, and due to the most overwhelming soul destroying event that happened, they had to part ways not seeing each other for years. Then the summer when their daughter Eve was pregnant, needing her mother for the summer, Jack and Stella see each other.

This book is a beautifully tragic story, I am still emotional! Life is just too short and this book proves it. This book is so character driven, mainly told from the point of view of Stella, but we do get glimpses of Eve and Jack too. We also have flashbacks to the past, when Stella and Jack were younger and in love.

I must admit I did not warm to Lisa, nothing against her really but she is written this way. I did not want to like her, she was with Jack. I did not want her to be with Jack, but then I liked Iain who Stella was with. Crazy I know!

Could their love survive another go?

There were times when I was shouting at the book! I was getting frustrated, why can’t things be so simple! Instead, the conversations were guarded, there was hostility, this was not the way it was meant to be! I love the simple life, why could they not! Other times I was cheering, things were going to (my) plan and it was perfect. A lot of the time, I was bawling my eyes out, how could Hilary do this to me! Yes me, I take it all personally lol.

I love this book, and I urge all of you to read it, maybe have a couple of tissues with you. You are left with the warm fuzzy feelings, hope and a final acceptance of how life is and how it could be.