Farewell Trip

by Karin Dixon and Gary Twynam

[Leah]

Farewell Trip came onto my radar when the publisher Carina posted the cover on their twitter feed. I loved the cover – it’s super pretty, and I was thrilled when Karin, one of the authors of Farewell Trip offered it to me to review. I eagerly downloaded it onto my kindle and knew I wanted to read it as soon as I could because I loved the sound of it so much. So, I started reading it and I knew right from the first chapter that this was my kind of book.

First, let’s get the comparisons out of the way. Yes, the novel is very similar to PS I Love You, and more so than that, the novel does actually acknowledge that, which almost made my head explode as I love when books do that. But it’s only similar to PS I Love You in the whole dead-man-writes-letters way. That’s it. They’re actually quite separate stories, that utilise the same feature. In this case, Ruth’s husband Trip has passed away and he’s left very strict instructions for what he wants done with his ashes: he wants to be spread around the world, to places that meant something to him and Ruth. Paris, New York, and places closer to home like Bristol and Reigate. And he’s also left letters to be read at each location, but as Ruth reads those letters, she finds out more than she bargained for.

When I initially started Farewell Trip, I thought Ruth and Trip had this amazing, fairy tale marriage, the type of marriage I myself aspire to. But actually as the novel wore on and we learnt more about both Trip and Ruth, we learn that that simply wasn’t true at all, and I have to admit, that did hurt me as each new revelation came out because I felt like I knew these people and I felt like I’d been told a big lie. It was disappointing, but I suppose that in the end what they had was a real marriage, with ups and downs like any normal couple…

The novel is very well written, each chapter shows us 3 different stories. There’s Trip’s letters, Ruth in the present day, and then a memory of what made that particular area memorable to Ruth and Trip. It’s all well titled, too, so you always know what you’re reading and I enjoyed that approach. I also liked the use of first and third person narrative, it mixed it up a bit and made it quite unique. I very much enjoyed Farewell Trip, I enjoyed getting to know Ruth and Trip, I enjoyed reading about their lives together and of their memories in some wonderful places. In the end, I even appreciated the fact that they’d come through so much and managed to survive together, until Trip’s death. It was really very good, and was very satisfied with how it all panned out, and I hope the authors Karin and Gary are busy writing a new book as I would love to read more from them, as they are very real writers.