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The Sorrow of Sisters
'I was aware of a profound feeling that I couldn't put a name to. It wasn't anything like joy or sorrow. It was something different, as if there existed inside me a place I had never known.'
Forty-nine year old Jane sits in her comfortable, glass-walled designer home, tapping out lucrative novels. But the bequest of a cottage on the wild southern shore of the Isle of Wight by a woman unknown to her is about to shift the whole equilibrium of her life and relationships.
For a while, nothing is what it has seemed to be. Jane is brought up against shocking revelations of violence and deceit that cause her to question the assumptions she has grown up with about her past. Driven to pursue her own search for truth and identity, Jane uncovers a trail that leads her to reconnect with extraordinary relatives she never knew she had, and eventually to her own reconciliation and inspiration.
This is the first book in The Undercliff Novels series and can be read as a stand-alone book.
Forty-nine year old Jane sits in her comfortable, glass-walled designer home, tapping out lucrative novels. But the bequest of a cottage on the wild southern shore of the Isle of Wight by a woman unknown to her is about to shift the whole equilibrium of her life and relationships.
For a while, nothing is what it has seemed to be. Jane is brought up against shocking revelations of violence and deceit that cause her to question the assumptions she has grown up with about her past. Driven to pursue her own search for truth and identity, Jane uncovers a trail that leads her to reconnect with extraordinary relatives she never knew she had, and eventually to her own reconciliation and inspiration.
This is the first book in The Undercliff Novels series and can be read as a stand-alone book.
264 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 31, 2021
Exquisitely told family saga. Compelling and hard to put down. Didn’t want to finish.
July 5, 2009
Wo soll ich anfangen?
Ich würde das Buch tatsächlich mehr in Richtung "Frauenliteratur" einsortieren, aber es ist keines dieser Klischee-Kitsch-Romane, in der alles in einer heilen Welt endet.
Das Buch hat zwar ein Happy End, aber davor um so mehr Dramatik :)
Der Stil ist klasse und die Perspektivenwechsel der verschiedenen Abschnitte sind super gemacht und haben mich nicht verwirrt. Dennoch liest sich das Buch schnell und flüssig und lässt einen nicht mehr so ganz los, bis man es zu Ende gelesen hat. Auch die Charaktere sind toll beschrieben und man kann sehr gut mitfühlen.
Ein wenig befremdlich war mir diese ganze Spiritualitätsgeschichte, aber die Art, wie die Autoren das beschrieben hat und im Verlauf des Buches damit umgeht, ist so gut, dass es nicht in die Esoterikspinnerschiene rutscht. Und da es unter anderem auch um Empathie ging, war das für mich natürlich nochmal extra spannend.
Hat mir wirklich außerordentlich gut gefallen, obwohl "Frauenromane" sonst nicht immer so mein Fall sind.
Ich würde das Buch tatsächlich mehr in Richtung "Frauenliteratur" einsortieren, aber es ist keines dieser Klischee-Kitsch-Romane, in der alles in einer heilen Welt endet.
Das Buch hat zwar ein Happy End, aber davor um so mehr Dramatik :)
Der Stil ist klasse und die Perspektivenwechsel der verschiedenen Abschnitte sind super gemacht und haben mich nicht verwirrt. Dennoch liest sich das Buch schnell und flüssig und lässt einen nicht mehr so ganz los, bis man es zu Ende gelesen hat. Auch die Charaktere sind toll beschrieben und man kann sehr gut mitfühlen.
Ein wenig befremdlich war mir diese ganze Spiritualitätsgeschichte, aber die Art, wie die Autoren das beschrieben hat und im Verlauf des Buches damit umgeht, ist so gut, dass es nicht in die Esoterikspinnerschiene rutscht. Und da es unter anderem auch um Empathie ging, war das für mich natürlich nochmal extra spannend.
Hat mir wirklich außerordentlich gut gefallen, obwohl "Frauenromane" sonst nicht immer so mein Fall sind.
January 28, 2013
Took me a long time to get into this book – had almost got to the 50 pages limit that I give when “Woosh” it hooked me in.
Jane is happily married to Chas – but childless. Just before her fiftieth birthday and aunt she never knew existed, Lillian, leaves her an inheritance – a cottage on a cliff on Isle of Wight. Her father refuses to talk about Lillian, and the lawyer advises her just to sell the cottage, but Jane decides on a whim to head off and find the place.
What she finds, the journey of discovery and the revelations of family skeletons, changes Jane for ever.
The story shifts between narrators, both dead and alive, and also shifts between past and present. There are twists and turns and is well worth the read.
Jane is happily married to Chas – but childless. Just before her fiftieth birthday and aunt she never knew existed, Lillian, leaves her an inheritance – a cottage on a cliff on Isle of Wight. Her father refuses to talk about Lillian, and the lawyer advises her just to sell the cottage, but Jane decides on a whim to head off and find the place.
What she finds, the journey of discovery and the revelations of family skeletons, changes Jane for ever.
The story shifts between narrators, both dead and alive, and also shifts between past and present. There are twists and turns and is well worth the read.
September 20, 2025
Wow. What an emotional roller-coaster of a book!
Jane is a novelist, married to an accountant, who suddenly hears that she has been left a cottage by an aunt that she didn't know existed.
Journeys into the past, brilliantly interwoven with the present as Jane begins to uncover her past. The author cleverly lets the reader stay a step ahead, anticipating what will happen and knowing secrets that Jane is still to uncover.
Character-driven, intended originally for women of around 45+. I found it difficult to put down once I had started. Definitely recommended.
Latest longer review: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
Jane is a novelist, married to an accountant, who suddenly hears that she has been left a cottage by an aunt that she didn't know existed.
Journeys into the past, brilliantly interwoven with the present as Jane begins to uncover her past. The author cleverly lets the reader stay a step ahead, anticipating what will happen and knowing secrets that Jane is still to uncover.
Character-driven, intended originally for women of around 45+. I found it difficult to put down once I had started. Definitely recommended.
Latest longer review: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/...
October 13, 2021
I loved this story and as a first novel it worked well, a little over written in places but a cracking good story which swept me along anyway - great characters, great plot, great descriptions of our home island where we both lived, it was great fun to read too
June 4, 2014
Horrible and heartbreaking tale of old age thinking and actions at it's worse.
June 6, 2014
A story of lesbian lovers and rape in a very mixed up pair of families discovered in pieces by one of the results of the rape
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews