The Piper's Son

by Melina Marchetta

[ladygrey]

The Piper's Son is all about pain. It starts out in the middle of Tom's pain in a similar way to how [b:Saving Francesca|82434|Saving Francesca|Melina Marchetta|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327865374s/82434.jpg|18042740] started out at the beginning of Francesca's. And of course [a:Melina Marchetta|47104|Melina Marchetta|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1277655889p2/47104.jpg] can unflinchingly reveal her character's pain. She roots around and shows you the source of it even as she serves up their anger and bitterness and lets them make bad choices because of it all, and good choices too.

Except it doesn't really hurt, which astounds me because when I read my own review I think, "I would never want to read a book like that." Except if it's Melina Marchetta's. Because there's something cathartic in her books - the gentle way she exposes her characters pain and the small moments of happiness that restore them in the end, and even in the middle to, piece by piece and bit by bit.

And because it's Melina Marchetta this world is made up of rich characters who love each other so strongly and devotedly even when they're so angry at each other and betrayed. She grants each one of them healing so that in the middle of the book I have tears falling down my face through a few chapters without the need to really cry. There's such strength and such vulnerability in her writing and in her characters that they're kind of impossible not to love.