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Our Endless Numbered Days
1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children and listening to her mother's grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change.
Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared. And so her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival. And a tiny wooden hut that is Everything.
Peggy is not seen again for another nine years.
1985: Peggy has returned to the family home. But what happened to her in the forest? And why has she come back now?
Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared. And so her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival. And a tiny wooden hut that is Everything.
Peggy is not seen again for another nine years.
1985: Peggy has returned to the family home. But what happened to her in the forest? And why has she come back now?
293 pages, Hardcover
First published February 16, 2015
666 people are currently reading
25613 people want to read
About the author
Claire Fuller
14 books2,501 followersClaire Fuller is the author of six novels: The Memory of Animals; Unsettled Ground, which won the Costa Novel Award 2021, and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction; Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the 2015 Desmond Elliott prize; Swimming Lessons, shortlisted for the Encore Prize; Bitter Orange longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award; and forthcoming in May 2026 Hunger and Thirst.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,533 reviews
November 13, 2025
Blech!
I regret that I can't unread this disgusting garbage.
What most irritates me, what I find so off-putting(beyond all of the mind-numbing lack of a plot) is that the story is only finally going somewhere when it ends. If you want to know the actual what the heck this book is about, read about the last five pages and you'll spare yourself hours and hours of boredom, unless you like books about a crazed father stealing his young daughter to live in a shack in the mountains, almost starving. And really, endless, is a perfect title because it is endless with nothing happening until those final few pages. Read them and skip the rest. You'll get the whole idea of the story, what's it really about and I don't know how all these reviews call it beautiful and luminous because it is anything but that, in my opinion. In a word, it is sordid.
There are descriptions of the sky and the trees and the ground over and over and yet, there is no character development. There is no real story until Peggy returns home and even then it just goes nowhere until the final page.
Peggy does not ever "unwittingly begin to unravel the series of events that brought her to the woods." I don't even know why that is the description of this book as that does not happen so what is on the fly-leaf is completely misleading. The author also notes something important in her after notes that she chooses to not include in the book, but it is one of the underpinning facts of the story so I feel that it is something of a gotcha, for no reason other than to sucker punch readers at the end of the book. Not well done.
Hated it and will never read this author again.
I regret that I can't unread this disgusting garbage.
What most irritates me, what I find so off-putting(beyond all of the mind-numbing lack of a plot) is that the story is only finally going somewhere when it ends. If you want to know the actual what the heck this book is about, read about the last five pages and you'll spare yourself hours and hours of boredom, unless you like books about a crazed father stealing his young daughter to live in a shack in the mountains, almost starving. And really, endless, is a perfect title because it is endless with nothing happening until those final few pages. Read them and skip the rest. You'll get the whole idea of the story, what's it really about and I don't know how all these reviews call it beautiful and luminous because it is anything but that, in my opinion. In a word, it is sordid.
There are descriptions of the sky and the trees and the ground over and over and yet, there is no character development. There is no real story until Peggy returns home and even then it just goes nowhere until the final page.
Peggy does not ever "unwittingly begin to unravel the series of events that brought her to the woods." I don't even know why that is the description of this book as that does not happen so what is on the fly-leaf is completely misleading. The author also notes something important in her after notes that she chooses to not include in the book, but it is one of the underpinning facts of the story so I feel that it is something of a gotcha, for no reason other than to sucker punch readers at the end of the book. Not well done.
Hated it and will never read this author again.
January 10, 2015
This. I am so full of feels that I can hardly breathe. This is the best book I've read in months. Oh my God. I have to gather myself.
February 22, 2017
"On the far side of the forest, toward the gill, I built a secret place. I bent thin saplings into an arch, weaving and tying them together. I interlaced these with reeds and sticks, and laid fresh ferns over the top so that my father could walk past and not noticed my
green bower. Inside it, curved over the top of my head when I sat upright, but most of the time I lay on more ferns covered with moss that I had prised from the rocks. I stretched out on my back, with my head sticking out of the opening, watching and upside-down world of branches and leaves and blue sky. I was a weaver bird and it was my nest".
Peggy, eight years old, when her father, James takes her from her home in London to a remote hut in the woods.
"Peggy! my father shouted once more."
"My name isn't Peggy,". I called out. "It's Rapunzel".
Peggy had to make up games, and names...from the beginning of this adventure. She wanted to go home. Peggy was crying and saying how much she missed her friend Becky at school and her mom, Ute, who was in Germany at Piano Performance. Peggy's mother was a concert pianist.
Her dad said, "we'll go home when fucking fish begin to fly".
"We can't go home, Rapunzel", She's dead.
Peggy's father becomes Peggy's entire world out in those woods. She becomes devoted to him.
Peggy's mother wasn't dead. --but for another 9 years Peggy grows up in those woods...until one day she finds a pair of boots - begins to look for their owner - unravels a series of events that brought her to the woods.... and in doing so discovers the strength she needs to get back home. She connects with the mother she thought she lost.
Her mother begins to learn the truth about their escape of what happened to James on the last night out in the woods and a secret that Peggy has carried with her ever since.
Having been completely blown away by Claire Fuller's other book "Swimming Lessons"... I was inspired to read "our endless numbered days" ....Claire's debut.
It's gorgeously written....highly imagined with poetic descriptions.
Mystery and wonder......a haunting tragic story....with raindrops of beauty!
green bower. Inside it, curved over the top of my head when I sat upright, but most of the time I lay on more ferns covered with moss that I had prised from the rocks. I stretched out on my back, with my head sticking out of the opening, watching and upside-down world of branches and leaves and blue sky. I was a weaver bird and it was my nest".
Peggy, eight years old, when her father, James takes her from her home in London to a remote hut in the woods.
"Peggy! my father shouted once more."
"My name isn't Peggy,". I called out. "It's Rapunzel".
Peggy had to make up games, and names...from the beginning of this adventure. She wanted to go home. Peggy was crying and saying how much she missed her friend Becky at school and her mom, Ute, who was in Germany at Piano Performance. Peggy's mother was a concert pianist.
Her dad said, "we'll go home when fucking fish begin to fly".
"We can't go home, Rapunzel", She's dead.
Peggy's father becomes Peggy's entire world out in those woods. She becomes devoted to him.
Peggy's mother wasn't dead. --but for another 9 years Peggy grows up in those woods...until one day she finds a pair of boots - begins to look for their owner - unravels a series of events that brought her to the woods.... and in doing so discovers the strength she needs to get back home. She connects with the mother she thought she lost.
Her mother begins to learn the truth about their escape of what happened to James on the last night out in the woods and a secret that Peggy has carried with her ever since.
Having been completely blown away by Claire Fuller's other book "Swimming Lessons"... I was inspired to read "our endless numbered days" ....Claire's debut.
It's gorgeously written....highly imagined with poetic descriptions.
Mystery and wonder......a haunting tragic story....with raindrops of beauty!
March 15, 2015
This is one of the best books I have read in a long while. It is beautifully written with a main character, Peggy, who I absolutely adored.
Her story starts in the long hot summer of 1976 when her survivalist father takes her away from everything she knows on a trek to somewhere in Europe. They spend the next nine years living in Die Hutte a wooden cabin in a densely wooded forest, miles from civilisation. They survive by living off the land and with Peggy under the illusion (from her father) that the rest of the world is dead, and that they are the only two people left alive.
Having said that her story starts in 1976, we first meet her in 1985 when she finally returns to London and gradually we learn the events that led to their leaving London in the first place, how they scrabbled to survive for so long in the forest and how she ultimately came to leave. We also see her first baby steps in living life back in “civilisation” with her mother Ute, a world famous concert pianist. She thought she had lost everything and she now has to come to terms with the fact that her father lied to her, and that her mother and indeed the whole world, far from being dead, are all alive and very much kicking.
It is a story that will really grab you and not let you go until the final page, the read just flowing along until before you know it you are on the last page. I love the subtle way the author dropped hints about why Peggy’s father did what he did and also about the state of his mind. She didn’t hammer the information into you, just cleverly popped it in there, one hint at a time so that as the reader you are aware of a lot more than Peggy, who may be getting older in the forest but in some respects is still the eight year old little girl who first arrived there.
I have to say as well that I do not “do” nature. Pages and pages of descriptions of trees, hills and flowers are a complete turn-off for me and I end up skipping pages, but in this case I just wanted to savour every sentence as Claire Fuller described her world to me. I could visual it so easily, almost as if I had been there myself.
The ending is stunning, it really caught me by surprise and is one I will be thinking about for a long time to come.
Her story starts in the long hot summer of 1976 when her survivalist father takes her away from everything she knows on a trek to somewhere in Europe. They spend the next nine years living in Die Hutte a wooden cabin in a densely wooded forest, miles from civilisation. They survive by living off the land and with Peggy under the illusion (from her father) that the rest of the world is dead, and that they are the only two people left alive.
Having said that her story starts in 1976, we first meet her in 1985 when she finally returns to London and gradually we learn the events that led to their leaving London in the first place, how they scrabbled to survive for so long in the forest and how she ultimately came to leave. We also see her first baby steps in living life back in “civilisation” with her mother Ute, a world famous concert pianist. She thought she had lost everything and she now has to come to terms with the fact that her father lied to her, and that her mother and indeed the whole world, far from being dead, are all alive and very much kicking.
It is a story that will really grab you and not let you go until the final page, the read just flowing along until before you know it you are on the last page. I love the subtle way the author dropped hints about why Peggy’s father did what he did and also about the state of his mind. She didn’t hammer the information into you, just cleverly popped it in there, one hint at a time so that as the reader you are aware of a lot more than Peggy, who may be getting older in the forest but in some respects is still the eight year old little girl who first arrived there.
I have to say as well that I do not “do” nature. Pages and pages of descriptions of trees, hills and flowers are a complete turn-off for me and I end up skipping pages, but in this case I just wanted to savour every sentence as Claire Fuller described her world to me. I could visual it so easily, almost as if I had been there myself.
The ending is stunning, it really caught me by surprise and is one I will be thinking about for a long time to come.
November 6, 2022
Why, oh why do so many people love this story? It was beyond disturbing, horrifying and just plain wrong. Yes, the author writes beautifully, but that doesn't make the subject of a child experiencing trauma enjoyable to read.
There, I've told you the entire repulsive story.
There, I've told you the entire repulsive story.
March 11, 2016
Originally started for one of my sampling blog posts, Our Endless Numbered Days was so compelling, so early on that I had to continue. My first impression was that this was 'a book I could happily binge-read in one sitting', and in the end I did just that (well, almost; it actually took me a couple of days to work my way through it).
The premise is this: in 1976, eight-year-old Peggy is taken by her survivalist father to live in a cabin, which he calls 'die Hütte', in the depths of an unspecific European forest. He tells her that her mother, concert pianist Ute, has died in an accident; a little later he tells her that the whole rest of the world has been wiped out, perhaps by an atomic bomb. We know from the very first chapter, however, that Peggy has returned to the family home aged seventeen, and that Ute is alive. So what exactly happened in between?
This is the kind of book you feel you simply must keep reading; Fuller is great at making the reader feel that something catastrophic is just around the corner, even though the beginning and the end are known from the outset. What's left is a set of questions that only become more urgent and fascinating as the twin narratives, 1976 and 1985, progress. What happened to Peggy's father? What was all the stuff with Oliver about? Who, or what, is, or was, Reuben? I hated having to put the book down, but at the same time I couldn't help but feel that wanting to tear through it so quickly meant I wasn't really bothered about the story and the language and description as anything more than a receptacle for the plot - that it lacked something, some sort of lasting nutritional value. Then again, there was nothing significant I really disliked. The 'twist'... It's intriguing to me that most of the high-rated reviews here are from people who adored the book, but the few who hated it seem to have truly loathed it. I didn't feel either of those extremes. I was gripped, but not moved.
Those who enjoyed this might also want to check out Rebecca Wait's The Followers, Paula Lichtarowicz's The First Book of Calamity Leek, and Maggie Mitchell's Pretty Is.
The premise is this: in 1976, eight-year-old Peggy is taken by her survivalist father to live in a cabin, which he calls 'die Hütte', in the depths of an unspecific European forest. He tells her that her mother, concert pianist Ute, has died in an accident; a little later he tells her that the whole rest of the world has been wiped out, perhaps by an atomic bomb. We know from the very first chapter, however, that Peggy has returned to the family home aged seventeen, and that Ute is alive. So what exactly happened in between?
This is the kind of book you feel you simply must keep reading; Fuller is great at making the reader feel that something catastrophic is just around the corner, even though the beginning and the end are known from the outset. What's left is a set of questions that only become more urgent and fascinating as the twin narratives, 1976 and 1985, progress. What happened to Peggy's father? What was all the stuff with Oliver about? Who, or what, is, or was, Reuben? I hated having to put the book down, but at the same time I couldn't help but feel that wanting to tear through it so quickly meant I wasn't really bothered about the story and the language and description as anything more than a receptacle for the plot - that it lacked something, some sort of lasting nutritional value. Then again, there was nothing significant I really disliked. The 'twist'... It's intriguing to me that most of the high-rated reviews here are from people who adored the book, but the few who hated it seem to have truly loathed it. I didn't feel either of those extremes. I was gripped, but not moved.
Those who enjoyed this might also want to check out Rebecca Wait's The Followers, Paula Lichtarowicz's The First Book of Calamity Leek, and Maggie Mitchell's Pretty Is.
February 10, 2015
A survivalist father abducts his eight year old daughter and settles in an abandoned cabin deep in the woods. He convinces the daughter they are the only two remaining humans left on the planet.
When you read this story: 1. Do not read ahead. 2. Read each word and phrase carefully.
The incredible ending is one that you will not see coming. I was tempted to go back and re-read portions of the book because how could I have possibly missed the foreshadowing?
When you read this story: 1. Do not read ahead. 2. Read each word and phrase carefully.
The incredible ending is one that you will not see coming. I was tempted to go back and re-read portions of the book because how could I have possibly missed the foreshadowing?
September 30, 2015
I believe that this book was a rather nice breath of fresh air, or at least it remained so until the end, when it kinda turned my stomach.
If any of you remember the neat stuff of The Wasp Factory or Life of Pi, you'll get a taste of all that here, but definitely not as crazy in either sense. All of the action and twist is much more homely and down to earth, sticking to the forest, so to speak.
It's definitely a cross between survivalist fiction and a coming of age novel, but all that doesn't quite surprise you will at least give you very nice taste of reading. Peggy's voice is very strong and the pacing is excellent, sometimes moving back and forward to the aftermath, never giving anything away until the right time.
It was a pleasant read, but I won't quite go so far as to say I was blown away by anything in particular. The surprises are merely horrifying, not mind-blowing.
YA, or not? I suppose it is. No one ought to lie that things like this revelation happens, but it only makes it a good novel because we're treated to the survivalist bits as well. All the characters are and will remain quite memorable. There's much worse praise out there.
Hell, it's a sight better than a number of the more recent SF classics I've read lately, and heads and shoulders above some other classic traditional fiction tomes I've had the pleasure (or not) of reading.
Still, the novel is only bold... to a point. There's no magical realism (which I probably would have gushed about) or severe twists of plot (which I would have applauded). No gimmicks, either. Just a solid tale told solidly, with beauty and strength.
If any of you remember the neat stuff of The Wasp Factory or Life of Pi, you'll get a taste of all that here, but definitely not as crazy in either sense. All of the action and twist is much more homely and down to earth, sticking to the forest, so to speak.
It's definitely a cross between survivalist fiction and a coming of age novel, but all that doesn't quite surprise you will at least give you very nice taste of reading. Peggy's voice is very strong and the pacing is excellent, sometimes moving back and forward to the aftermath, never giving anything away until the right time.
It was a pleasant read, but I won't quite go so far as to say I was blown away by anything in particular. The surprises are merely horrifying, not mind-blowing.
YA, or not? I suppose it is. No one ought to lie that things like this revelation happens, but it only makes it a good novel because we're treated to the survivalist bits as well. All the characters are and will remain quite memorable. There's much worse praise out there.
Hell, it's a sight better than a number of the more recent SF classics I've read lately, and heads and shoulders above some other classic traditional fiction tomes I've had the pleasure (or not) of reading.
Still, the novel is only bold... to a point. There's no magical realism (which I probably would have gushed about) or severe twists of plot (which I would have applauded). No gimmicks, either. Just a solid tale told solidly, with beauty and strength.
March 15, 2017
3.5/5 stars? I'm not sure how to rate this yet. This book had some serious 'WTF'-moments. I don't know how else to put it. :D I'll have to give this some more thought before I give my final rating.
August 21, 2018
This was a wonderful book. I picked it up after reading and loving Claire's second novel, Swimming Lessons. It is one of my favourite books of the year. I enjoyed Our Endless Numbered days. And had I read it first, before Swimming Lessons, I would have rated it much higher. Claire Fuller has matured as an author in her second novel. So I would advise you to read this first and then Swimming Lessons if you are keen on both.
-highly atmospheric
-eerily frightening
-good character sketches
-excellent build up about how to survive alone in the wild
-themes of how easily kids can be fooled; how easily they forget
-symbolisms of how we are caged in our own beliefs
What is similar to Swimming lessons?
-attachment between daughters and fathers
-alternating structure between the past and present
-similar relationship between daughter and mother (mother leaves, mother is absent etc)
I loved the read. But towards the end it seemed a bit repetitive with the atmosphere. The build up was brilliant and the reader's heart goes out for Peggy. As you read you realise this is a story that can happen in real life. The ending wrenched my heart. Highly recommended.
Rating : 3.5/5
-highly atmospheric
-eerily frightening
-good character sketches
-excellent build up about how to survive alone in the wild
-themes of how easily kids can be fooled; how easily they forget
-symbolisms of how we are caged in our own beliefs
What is similar to Swimming lessons?
-attachment between daughters and fathers
-alternating structure between the past and present
-similar relationship between daughter and mother (mother leaves, mother is absent etc)
I loved the read. But towards the end it seemed a bit repetitive with the atmosphere. The build up was brilliant and the reader's heart goes out for Peggy. As you read you realise this is a story that can happen in real life. The ending wrenched my heart. Highly recommended.
Rating : 3.5/5
August 21, 2020
I had no idea this wind-worn woman, creased and bag-eyed, standing outside her barn with her cow on a rope, would be the last person I would meet from the real world for another nine years.
Peggy is only eight-years-old when her mentally unbalanced father whisks her away to a remote cabin in the woods. She thinks it's a fun holiday; he means it to be a permanent relocation . . . going so far as to tell Peggy that the rest of the world has been destroyed, and they are the only survivors.
Fuller's novel takes you to some pretty dark places, but it is so beautifully written and involving, you don't really notice all the disturbing moments until they come together for a discomfiting finale.
Peggy is only eight-years-old when her mentally unbalanced father whisks her away to a remote cabin in the woods. She thinks it's a fun holiday; he means it to be a permanent relocation . . . going so far as to tell Peggy that the rest of the world has been destroyed, and they are the only survivors.
Fuller's novel takes you to some pretty dark places, but it is so beautifully written and involving, you don't really notice all the disturbing moments until they come together for a discomfiting finale.
December 20, 2017
I read
Swimming Lessons
earlier in the year and then went back to catch up on Fuller’s acclaimed debut from 2015. Collectively, I am so impressed with her work, specifically the elegant way she alternates between different time periods to gradually reveal the full extent of family secrets and the potential faultiness of memory. Here the narrator is Peggy Hillcoat, a 17-year-old in recovery from nine years spent in a hut in the Bavarian forest with her father, an extreme survivalist who convinced himself – and his only daughter – that the world was ending and it was time to leave the family home in London behind and take their chances in the wilderness.
The narrative gives us brief glimpses of Peggy back home with her mother and younger brother in London in 1985, but mostly immerses us in the daily life of two people on the edge of survival. I loved how richly Fuller imagines their life: how they found food, made the most of their few possessions, and improvised little extras to make life special. In my favorite chapter of all (#12), her father builds her a makeshift piano and teaches her to read music. Of course, the piano doesn’t play a note, but in their minds it creates the most beautiful music.
Things turn darker as Peggy becomes a teenager and the fairytale perfection of their little world (her father calls her “Punzel,” short for Rapunzel) becomes tarnished. You might think of this as a less caustic My Absolute Darling or Fourth of July Creek. I would recommend Fuller’s work to any literary fiction reader looking for another author to try. To me she seems like a more accessible Iris Murdoch. Luckily for us, she’s completed her third novel, Bitter Orange, which now must undergo the editing process. I can’t wait to read it.
Note: The title comes from the album of the same name by Iron & Wine (aka Sam Beam), as does the line “Everything looks perfect from far away,” and Fuller mentions Beam in her acknowledgments.
The narrative gives us brief glimpses of Peggy back home with her mother and younger brother in London in 1985, but mostly immerses us in the daily life of two people on the edge of survival. I loved how richly Fuller imagines their life: how they found food, made the most of their few possessions, and improvised little extras to make life special. In my favorite chapter of all (#12), her father builds her a makeshift piano and teaches her to read music. Of course, the piano doesn’t play a note, but in their minds it creates the most beautiful music.
Things turn darker as Peggy becomes a teenager and the fairytale perfection of their little world (her father calls her “Punzel,” short for Rapunzel) becomes tarnished. You might think of this as a less caustic My Absolute Darling or Fourth of July Creek. I would recommend Fuller’s work to any literary fiction reader looking for another author to try. To me she seems like a more accessible Iris Murdoch. Luckily for us, she’s completed her third novel, Bitter Orange, which now must undergo the editing process. I can’t wait to read it.
Note: The title comes from the album of the same name by Iron & Wine (aka Sam Beam), as does the line “Everything looks perfect from far away,” and Fuller mentions Beam in her acknowledgments.
April 16, 2015
This book left me reeling. I can't remember the last novel to provoke such a strong emotional reaction in me. The characterisation is perfect, allowing for a precise family dynamic to be created before, during, and after Peggy's abduction. Peggy herself offers a unique narrative, the balance of child-like naïveté and keen insight giving the reader a clear view of what has really transpired.
The premise was astonishing. Though the novel is ambitious, Fuller executes it almost perfectly - almost. Her writing is spellbinding. From start to finish, I was transfixed by this sad and unusual tale. At eight, Peggy is taken on an adventure holiday by her survivalist father. The holiday extends until it is warped into something else entirely. Peggy's father tells her that the world has ended - that the two of them are the only survivors - and it is not fully clear whether the child believes this, or if this horror is easier for her to process than the magnitude of her father's betrayal. Despite the improbable nature of the story, it is thoroughly convincing - Fuller has done her research, and it shows.
Though the story is undeniably tragic - from the outset, we know that nine years of Peggy's life have been stolen from her - it is also beautiful. The twin magic of music, Peggy's connection with her mother, and nature, the basis of her relationship with her father, are sustaining in a way that neither parent proves to be. The atmosphere of the novel is rich. Its pace is consistent, and the climax of the story is devastating.
"Our Endless Numbered Days" is a truly extraordinary book. Not one for the faint of heart, I'd recommend this novel to anyone looking for a book to turn them inside-out.
The premise was astonishing. Though the novel is ambitious, Fuller executes it almost perfectly - almost. Her writing is spellbinding. From start to finish, I was transfixed by this sad and unusual tale. At eight, Peggy is taken on an adventure holiday by her survivalist father. The holiday extends until it is warped into something else entirely. Peggy's father tells her that the world has ended - that the two of them are the only survivors - and it is not fully clear whether the child believes this, or if this horror is easier for her to process than the magnitude of her father's betrayal. Despite the improbable nature of the story, it is thoroughly convincing - Fuller has done her research, and it shows.
Though the story is undeniably tragic - from the outset, we know that nine years of Peggy's life have been stolen from her - it is also beautiful. The twin magic of music, Peggy's connection with her mother, and nature, the basis of her relationship with her father, are sustaining in a way that neither parent proves to be. The atmosphere of the novel is rich. Its pace is consistent, and the climax of the story is devastating.
"Our Endless Numbered Days" is a truly extraordinary book. Not one for the faint of heart, I'd recommend this novel to anyone looking for a book to turn them inside-out.
June 4, 2015
I suspect a great deal of one's reception to this book hinges upon whether you predicted the twist at the end, or were suckerpunched by it. I belong to the former group, and felt that throwing it in at the end with no exploration of the psychological trauma the protagonist went through was pretty cheap move. No thanks.
December 29, 2015
One sign of a five star is it deepens our understanding of books we’ve previously read & now I feel I can relate better to Elizabeth Flock’s Me & Emma. In Our Endless Numbered Days, Peggy is a victim of really terrible child abuse, but like Carrie in Me & Emma, she is too young & naive to be aware that what is happening to her is far from normal & of quite how badly she is being treated by a father or stepfather who ought to have the child protective services descending on him like the Furies. Such stories have a particular poignancy; we feel love & pity for the suffering child, admiration for her courage & endurance, & anger @ the parents for committing or condoning such abuse. In the case of Ute (why do Germans give their children such ugly names?), I felt she cared much more about her career than about her daughter, even before her father - obviously more than a burrito shy of a combination platter - abducts her. Because we see things from only Peggy’s child’s-eye POV, tho’, we’re less likely object to such improbabilities, as we wonder as well how father & daughter could find a location in Western Europe remote enough to remain in nine years without encountering any other campers & hikers or spotting an aircraft overhead, especially in a location with a good-sized hut with a wood-burning stove. While I noticed the unlikelihood of the setting straight off, it was only gradually that we realise that in Peggy we have an unreliable narrator. I find these both fascinating & frustrating. When they are flat-out liars or deliberately withhold essential information, I congratulate myself on my acuity if I see through them or get very annoyed with the author (such as Sophie Hannah) if I don’t. More interesting are narrators who are too young or inexperienced to know what’s really going on - Charles Dickens, Mark Twain & William Faulkner created some wonderful examples. I felt Emma Donahue rather overdid this effect in Room. Finally we have narrators who are unreliable because they are supposed to be delusional. But often that is for the reader to decide. For example, James’s The Turn of the Screw is a totally different story if you accept the ghosts as really being there, as opposed to thinking they are figments of the governess’s unconscious. (Personally I find it much easier to believe in ghosts than to believe in Freudian psychoanalysis.) But how should we classify Peggy? Read the rest of this review after you’ve read the book, then please let me know what you think. But whatever you decide, I expect you’ll find this an excellent read with much to reflect on.
February 18, 2020
This was a 383-page book that I started out with a goal of reading 50 pages….then “might as well read to 100 pages”…and then another 100 pages (half the book and “that would be a good place to stop for the day, because I am not going to read the whole book!”) …and then I kept on going (how does this end?????).
So, thank you Claire Fuller for writing a book that had me in its clutches. I got this book from the library, I think, because a Goodreads friend (Trevor P.?) had recommended another book by Claire Fuller to read (either Swimming Lessons or Bitter Orange), but the library did not have them….however another branch of the county library system did have Our Endless Numbered Days, her debut novel, so I took that.
It is about an 8-year old girl, Peggy Hillcoat, who lives in London and has a father who believes the end of the world is at hand and he starts out by building a cellar in the house with enough provisions to last the family well into the apocalypse. He has a wife who is a concert pianist and is on tour In Germany - she is the breadwinner of the family. One night he get a call from her and something happens to him where he goes ape-shit….he, I believe, is 26 years old at the time and takes his daughter and says they have to go from the house (and its well-stocked survivalist shelter in the cellar) because the end of the world is at hand but they can’t go to the cellar…they have to go to a cabin in the woods somewhere some distance away. He had a map…
The book alternates between when she is back at her house in London, 9 years later (when she is 17), and when she is out in the wild with her father (that occupies the majority of the book) in survivalist mode. They barely made it through the first winter without literally starving to death. She supposedly meets another man, Reuben, near the end of her 9-year stay in the woods. She makes it back to civilization without her father and without Reuben. And I can’t say much more because I avoid spoilers ( 😊 ). It was very interesting to read how she and her father lived in the wild for all those years.
The book is dark but not so dark as to leave me feeling so depressed at the end that I wish I had not read it. I am glad I did! Peggy has spunk and in the end does turn out to be a survivalist and I have a suspicion her character will do fine.
Here is Claire Fuller’s bio:
Claire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. She has written three former novels: Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, Swimming Lessons, which was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award, and Bitter Orange. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband and two children.
So, thank you Claire Fuller for writing a book that had me in its clutches. I got this book from the library, I think, because a Goodreads friend (Trevor P.?) had recommended another book by Claire Fuller to read (either Swimming Lessons or Bitter Orange), but the library did not have them….however another branch of the county library system did have Our Endless Numbered Days, her debut novel, so I took that.
It is about an 8-year old girl, Peggy Hillcoat, who lives in London and has a father who believes the end of the world is at hand and he starts out by building a cellar in the house with enough provisions to last the family well into the apocalypse. He has a wife who is a concert pianist and is on tour In Germany - she is the breadwinner of the family. One night he get a call from her and something happens to him where he goes ape-shit….he, I believe, is 26 years old at the time and takes his daughter and says they have to go from the house (and its well-stocked survivalist shelter in the cellar) because the end of the world is at hand but they can’t go to the cellar…they have to go to a cabin in the woods somewhere some distance away. He had a map…
The book alternates between when she is back at her house in London, 9 years later (when she is 17), and when she is out in the wild with her father (that occupies the majority of the book) in survivalist mode. They barely made it through the first winter without literally starving to death. She supposedly meets another man, Reuben, near the end of her 9-year stay in the woods. She makes it back to civilization without her father and without Reuben. And I can’t say much more because I avoid spoilers ( 😊 ). It was very interesting to read how she and her father lived in the wild for all those years.
The book is dark but not so dark as to leave me feeling so depressed at the end that I wish I had not read it. I am glad I did! Peggy has spunk and in the end does turn out to be a survivalist and I have a suspicion her character will do fine.
Here is Claire Fuller’s bio:
Claire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. She has written three former novels: Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, Swimming Lessons, which was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award, and Bitter Orange. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband and two children.
October 13, 2024
In this compelling first novel, Claire Fuller gives us three principal characters, with two on the side who significantly influence the action.
The book begins in London and is told from the point of view of Peggy, aka Punzel, a girl who is 8 years old at the start, and 17 when the book concludes. She begins her story in 1976 and concludes 1985 in a second timeline, concurrently presented.
Peggy's mother is Ute, a highly regarded, self-involved, concert pianist who goes on tour shortly after the beginning of the story. Dad is James, whose primary preoccupation is consulting with his pals about survivalist strategies following a nuclear attack. One of these friends is Oliver, an American with a vaguely menacing presence felt by both Ute and Peggy, though not James.
A long-distance phone call from Ute triggers James to pack up Peggy and some survival equipment and head for Die Hutte, a cabin deep in the Bavarian forest. Circumstances at the cabin when they arrive are not what he has been led to believe (by Oliver? it's not clear), but eventually James makes it into an a functional home for the two of them. Before long he tells Peggy, now called Punzel, that there has been an apocalyptic event and that the two of them are the only survivors. She is not to venture far from Die Hutte because it is the only safe space.
After a first, very rough, winter, they develop a routine that keeps them alive, though not exactly flourishing. As the years pass, James develops Mental Health Issues - he frequently becomes irrational and violent. Eventually Punzel meets Reuben, a capable young woodsman who becomes her friend and ally. When she first attempts to tell James about Reuben she is rebuffed, and so she keeps quiet about him.
And then we get to the end, in which everything we thought we knew is put into question. Although there are hints scattered throughout the book, they are artfully woven in and the conclusion is, in a word, unnerving.
Many thanks to Lisa (NY) for her review recommending this. As she noted in her review, it is truly unputdownable.
The book begins in London and is told from the point of view of Peggy, aka Punzel, a girl who is 8 years old at the start, and 17 when the book concludes. She begins her story in 1976 and concludes 1985 in a second timeline, concurrently presented.
Peggy's mother is Ute, a highly regarded, self-involved, concert pianist who goes on tour shortly after the beginning of the story. Dad is James, whose primary preoccupation is consulting with his pals about survivalist strategies following a nuclear attack. One of these friends is Oliver, an American with a vaguely menacing presence felt by both Ute and Peggy, though not James.
A long-distance phone call from Ute triggers James to pack up Peggy and some survival equipment and head for Die Hutte, a cabin deep in the Bavarian forest. Circumstances at the cabin when they arrive are not what he has been led to believe (by Oliver? it's not clear), but eventually James makes it into an a functional home for the two of them. Before long he tells Peggy, now called Punzel, that there has been an apocalyptic event and that the two of them are the only survivors. She is not to venture far from Die Hutte because it is the only safe space.
After a first, very rough, winter, they develop a routine that keeps them alive, though not exactly flourishing. As the years pass, James develops Mental Health Issues - he frequently becomes irrational and violent. Eventually Punzel meets Reuben, a capable young woodsman who becomes her friend and ally. When she first attempts to tell James about Reuben she is rebuffed, and so she keeps quiet about him.
And then we get to the end, in which everything we thought we knew is put into question. Although there are hints scattered throughout the book, they are artfully woven in and the conclusion is, in a word, unnerving.
Many thanks to Lisa (NY) for her review recommending this. As she noted in her review, it is truly unputdownable.
August 16, 2023
Ugh, Fuller, I'm gutted and triggered. I read this voraciously all the while fearful, creeped out and chiding myself not to think the worst.... but all those moments of disassociation, the unsaid...I was right without wanting to be. My heart again breaks and pains for another one of Fuller's protagonists. Such captive writing ...I feel like the cat that was killed by curiosity but saved by unsettling satisfaction.
August 9, 2016
I can't decide if this is three stars or four. The writing was solid, and I imagine many readers will enjoy it. But the plotting was occasionally awkward and the was ultimately unsatisfying.
April 27, 2015
I was intrigued by the scenario.
When she was eight years-old Peggy’s father told her that the situation he feared had come to pass. The world had ended and everyone was dead, except for the two of them. They were still there because he was a survivalist, because he been preparing for what had happened for years.
He took her away from their London home to live in die Hütte, a wooden cabin, deep in a remote forest somewhere on continental Europe.
He lied. The world hadn’t ended. Her mother wasn’t dead. The world continued to turn without them.
But they lived in the forest for nine years ….
The story opens in 1985, when Peggy is seventeen years old, and has returned to her old London home, with her mother and the nine year-old brother she hadn’t been there to meet.
She is adapting to the change in her life, and the new knowledge that change has brought her.
She is thinking of the hot summer of 1976 when her father taught her survivalist skills while her German mother, a celebrated concert pianist, was away on tour.
And she is thinking of those nine years, how they began, how they survived, how things changed, and how they ended.
Her voice is lovely; naïve, confiding and utterly compelling. I was captivated and because of that, and because her perspective was held so perfectly I didn’t worry about all those practical questions about what happened and about how ever it could have happened.
At first Peggy enjoyed the adventure, setting up a new home, exploring the woodland all around, and finding a new and very different way of living.
Her descriptions were lovely and so very evocative. They drew me right into the story.
I was concerned, by the whole situation, and because as Peggy described her father I realised that he was obsessive — and dangerously so
When winter came, and snow fell, Peggy and her father were trapped in die Hütte. and food and water ran desperately short. I feared for them, and because I perceived him with adult understanding and Peggy’s understanding was still childish I found more reasons to be fearful.
Over the years Peggy learned and understood more. She began to question her father’s authority and judgement. And she began to realise that her father’s obsession was turning into madness.
That was why when she saw signs that they weren’t alone, that someone else had survived and was living in the forest, she said nothing to her father and set out alone to try to learn more …..
Claire Fuller has woven together elements of dystopian stories, elements of grown-up fairy stories, elements of psychological studies, to create a first novel that is so very distinctive.
And there’s more than that.
This is a story underpinned by wonderful understanding of different relationships. First there is the relationship between a husband and wife who have grown apart but stayed together; then there is the relationship between father and daughter that evolves in the most extraordinary circumstances; and finally there is the relationship between mother and daughter that has, somehow, to be rebuilt.
There are interesting touches, there are lovely idiosyncrasies – thinking points would be the right collective noun, I think -in all of the aspects of the story; I could write reams, but if you’ve read the book you know, and if you haven’t you should it’s lovely to find these things and to think about them as the plot and the relationships evolve.
The evolution of the plot and the relationships made this story utterly compelling. As it moved backwards and forwards in time I had to keep turning the pages to find out exactly how Peggy got home.
The answers to my questions – and the end of the book – came quickly. It was unexpected, and yet it was utterly believable. I might have worked it out, I might have spotted the clues, but I didn’t.
I was left with questions about Peggy’s reliability, questions about exactly what happened, and question about what would happen after the final page.
But I was left with no doubt at all that this is a wonderfully accomplished debut novel.
When she was eight years-old Peggy’s father told her that the situation he feared had come to pass. The world had ended and everyone was dead, except for the two of them. They were still there because he was a survivalist, because he been preparing for what had happened for years.
He took her away from their London home to live in die Hütte, a wooden cabin, deep in a remote forest somewhere on continental Europe.
He lied. The world hadn’t ended. Her mother wasn’t dead. The world continued to turn without them.
But they lived in the forest for nine years ….
The story opens in 1985, when Peggy is seventeen years old, and has returned to her old London home, with her mother and the nine year-old brother she hadn’t been there to meet.
She is adapting to the change in her life, and the new knowledge that change has brought her.
She is thinking of the hot summer of 1976 when her father taught her survivalist skills while her German mother, a celebrated concert pianist, was away on tour.
And she is thinking of those nine years, how they began, how they survived, how things changed, and how they ended.
Her voice is lovely; naïve, confiding and utterly compelling. I was captivated and because of that, and because her perspective was held so perfectly I didn’t worry about all those practical questions about what happened and about how ever it could have happened.
At first Peggy enjoyed the adventure, setting up a new home, exploring the woodland all around, and finding a new and very different way of living.
Her descriptions were lovely and so very evocative. They drew me right into the story.
I was concerned, by the whole situation, and because as Peggy described her father I realised that he was obsessive — and dangerously so
When winter came, and snow fell, Peggy and her father were trapped in die Hütte. and food and water ran desperately short. I feared for them, and because I perceived him with adult understanding and Peggy’s understanding was still childish I found more reasons to be fearful.
Over the years Peggy learned and understood more. She began to question her father’s authority and judgement. And she began to realise that her father’s obsession was turning into madness.
That was why when she saw signs that they weren’t alone, that someone else had survived and was living in the forest, she said nothing to her father and set out alone to try to learn more …..
Claire Fuller has woven together elements of dystopian stories, elements of grown-up fairy stories, elements of psychological studies, to create a first novel that is so very distinctive.
And there’s more than that.
This is a story underpinned by wonderful understanding of different relationships. First there is the relationship between a husband and wife who have grown apart but stayed together; then there is the relationship between father and daughter that evolves in the most extraordinary circumstances; and finally there is the relationship between mother and daughter that has, somehow, to be rebuilt.
There are interesting touches, there are lovely idiosyncrasies – thinking points would be the right collective noun, I think -in all of the aspects of the story; I could write reams, but if you’ve read the book you know, and if you haven’t you should it’s lovely to find these things and to think about them as the plot and the relationships evolve.
The evolution of the plot and the relationships made this story utterly compelling. As it moved backwards and forwards in time I had to keep turning the pages to find out exactly how Peggy got home.
The answers to my questions – and the end of the book – came quickly. It was unexpected, and yet it was utterly believable. I might have worked it out, I might have spotted the clues, but I didn’t.
I was left with questions about Peggy’s reliability, questions about exactly what happened, and question about what would happen after the final page.
But I was left with no doubt at all that this is a wonderfully accomplished debut novel.
March 16, 2016
edited: I thought I titled this review "Our Endless Numbered Pages".
I got suckered into buying this book based on all the rave reviews. It's taken me three weeks to get 80 pages into it. I found it depressing, repetitive (OK, OK, we know Ute plays the piano beautifully!) and maddening, with lots of going back and forth in time (which I don't like as it spoils the flow of a story, unless done right). I'm also not interested in how they kill rabbits and small game, let alone big game, and I found it disturbing overall. I'm not going to finish it, and I don't care what the "twist" is, but I can guess what it is. Ick.
I got suckered into buying this book based on all the rave reviews. It's taken me three weeks to get 80 pages into it. I found it depressing, repetitive (OK, OK, we know Ute plays the piano beautifully!) and maddening, with lots of going back and forth in time (which I don't like as it spoils the flow of a story, unless done right). I'm also not interested in how they kill rabbits and small game, let alone big game, and I found it disturbing overall. I'm not going to finish it, and I don't care what the "twist" is, but I can guess what it is. Ick.
June 28, 2016
I first had this book recommended to me when I had author Nathan Ballingrud on the Reading Envy podcast. He had recently finished it and praised it highly. It has been floating around in my mind ever since so I finally read it.
The basis premise of the novel is a father who kidnaps his daughter, lying to her and making her think they are the only survivors on the planet. He is a survivalist but it isn't clear in the beginning how he leaps from stockpiling food to going on the run. I found it to be both enchanting and disturbing and just couldn't quit reading it. Hundreds of pages at a time. The father speaks of their new home, and of other things, in random German, which adds a fairy tale element to the experience for the daughter. The story is told between the years in the forest and 1985, when she has returned home.
I've seen a lot of comparisons with Room, and I suppose in the sense that the majority of the story takes place between a parent and a child, there are some similar elements. But in Room, the parent is protecting the child, creating a world to keep him safe and protected. In this novel, the parent may believe the delusion that this is what he is doing, but it is the opposite, and it is hard to read at certain moments because of it. I think I was more wrapped up in this because I was on the vacation in the mountains of NC, and had just hiked in a similar landscape the very day I started the novel. Plus I grew up in the woods with a family who canned food, gardened, stockpiled wood and was a pretty self-contained unit in the winters and summers. Perhaps this doesn't seem so far off to my experience!
The basis premise of the novel is a father who kidnaps his daughter, lying to her and making her think they are the only survivors on the planet. He is a survivalist but it isn't clear in the beginning how he leaps from stockpiling food to going on the run. I found it to be both enchanting and disturbing and just couldn't quit reading it. Hundreds of pages at a time. The father speaks of their new home, and of other things, in random German, which adds a fairy tale element to the experience for the daughter. The story is told between the years in the forest and 1985, when she has returned home.
I've seen a lot of comparisons with Room, and I suppose in the sense that the majority of the story takes place between a parent and a child, there are some similar elements. But in Room, the parent is protecting the child, creating a world to keep him safe and protected. In this novel, the parent may believe the delusion that this is what he is doing, but it is the opposite, and it is hard to read at certain moments because of it. I think I was more wrapped up in this because I was on the vacation in the mountains of NC, and had just hiked in a similar landscape the very day I started the novel. Plus I grew up in the woods with a family who canned food, gardened, stockpiled wood and was a pretty self-contained unit in the winters and summers. Perhaps this doesn't seem so far off to my experience!
September 1, 2016
I thought this was an excellent book. Told retrospectively, it weaves a highly contextual story of perception and survival. It paints the very frightening picture of a parent decending into mental illness from the perspective of a child who has no outside help or context to draw from, and the ways a child might cope with that situation, but it tells the tale with a voice still innocent and with an appreciation for love and beauty.
August 30, 2024
A survivalist father kidnaps a daughter and takes her to a remote village where he tells her they’re the last 2 survivors. I actually really enjoyed this book. It’s full of unreliable narrators. It’s heartbreaking and became heavy for me to try and place myself in the FMC shoes as she lost so much of a carefree childhood. Some of these topics are heavy and may make you (rightfully so) angry at characters. They’re fictional, of course, but this is a scenario that I feel like could happen in real life either due to mental health issues or extremist views. Very strongly written, maybe a little disjointed at times? Enjoyed this author very much. Check TW before diving into this one.
February 7, 2017
This is one of those books that on paper shouldn’t be any good at all, but in execution is sad and lovely and quietly powerful. I feel like it should come with a warning, though, as based on the pastoral-looking cover, I didn’t realize it was going to be as devastating as it was.
Eight-year-old Peggy journeys with her father to a remote cabin in the woods. He tells her that a cataclysmic event has ended the world outside their forest, and they are the only ones left. We know from the beginning that isn’t true, because the novel includes sections set years in the future, when Peggy has returned to her old home with her mother in London, and the world has very much continued on without her. Why her father told her this and the impact his lie will have on her life are slowly, almost painstakingly, revealed.
Because yes, I’ll admit the book is slow, in a way. It reads quickly, but the revelations are doled out piecemeal. It’s like following a trail of breadcrumbs—perhaps an apt comparison, considering it’s a book about a girl literally lost in the woods. And the closer you get to the end, the more you start to shrink away from the truth you know you’ll find, because it won’t be anything good. Stories of parents kidnapping and lying to their own children rarely end with everyone hugging it out. But Claire Fuller is a skilled technician—she knows her story well and the right way to tell it for maximum impact.
This was my choice for book club this month, and if I may pat myself on the back, I think it was a pretty good one. Not everyone will like it—style wise and content wise, it’s bound to rub some readers the wrong way. But it will provide plenty of fodder for discussion, which is what I usually look for in a book club pick.
Eight-year-old Peggy journeys with her father to a remote cabin in the woods. He tells her that a cataclysmic event has ended the world outside their forest, and they are the only ones left. We know from the beginning that isn’t true, because the novel includes sections set years in the future, when Peggy has returned to her old home with her mother in London, and the world has very much continued on without her. Why her father told her this and the impact his lie will have on her life are slowly, almost painstakingly, revealed.
Because yes, I’ll admit the book is slow, in a way. It reads quickly, but the revelations are doled out piecemeal. It’s like following a trail of breadcrumbs—perhaps an apt comparison, considering it’s a book about a girl literally lost in the woods. And the closer you get to the end, the more you start to shrink away from the truth you know you’ll find, because it won’t be anything good. Stories of parents kidnapping and lying to their own children rarely end with everyone hugging it out. But Claire Fuller is a skilled technician—she knows her story well and the right way to tell it for maximum impact.
This was my choice for book club this month, and if I may pat myself on the back, I think it was a pretty good one. Not everyone will like it—style wise and content wise, it’s bound to rub some readers the wrong way. But it will provide plenty of fodder for discussion, which is what I usually look for in a book club pick.
November 21, 2014
I always approach a book with an open mind, no matter the genre or topic. But that being said, I didn't expect this book to be in my limited favorites shelf.
I was amazed on many levels with this book. The authors description of the setting was vivid. I read before I fall asleep and upon closing my eyes I still could see the tree's, the hut and the rest of the scenery in detail. It was like I was right there.
The turn of events at every corner made it a hard book to put down. It was amazing how the author writes and makes everything flow together, but then at the end she makes you doubt and question things and you can see how things could have been different. I can't really explain better without spoiling the whole story.
I got so into the book that upon ranting and raving about certain events in the book to my husband he turns and laughs, saying "You really got into this book didn't you." Yes, Yes I did. I have nothing bad to say about this book.
This book has the potential to be one of the must read books of 2015.
I received this book for free for my honest review. All opinions are my own and I have not promised nor am I required to give a positive review for this book.
I was amazed on many levels with this book. The authors description of the setting was vivid. I read before I fall asleep and upon closing my eyes I still could see the tree's, the hut and the rest of the scenery in detail. It was like I was right there.
The turn of events at every corner made it a hard book to put down. It was amazing how the author writes and makes everything flow together, but then at the end she makes you doubt and question things and you can see how things could have been different. I can't really explain better without spoiling the whole story.
I got so into the book that upon ranting and raving about certain events in the book to my husband he turns and laughs, saying "You really got into this book didn't you." Yes, Yes I did. I have nothing bad to say about this book.
This book has the potential to be one of the must read books of 2015.
I received this book for free for my honest review. All opinions are my own and I have not promised nor am I required to give a positive review for this book.
October 8, 2025
Estoy en un proceso de selección de lectura más exquisita. Me niego a leer en masa, o todo aquello que vende y que tiene muchísimo marketing a su alrededor. No digo que “Nuestros días serán Infinitos” de Claire Fuller no sea una novela conocida, para nada, pero es cierto que no la vas a ver en cartelitos de escaparates o con una etiqueta típica de “más de x ejemplares vendidos”, y eso ya le está otorgando un poder absoluto, al menos para mí.
Nuestros días serán infinitos, de Claire Fuller, es una inquietante novela que entrelaza el thriller psicológico con una absoluta fábula oscura que llega hasta agobiar, explorando los límites del amor paternal, la manipulación y la fragilidad de la realidad percibida. Ambientada en el sofocante verano del año 1976, la historia sigue a Peggy Hillcoat, una niña de ocho años que pasa los días en el sótano de su casa junto a su padre.
Un día es raptada por su padre James Hillcoat, un hombre paranoico y dominado por teorías apocalípticas, y llevada a una cabaña oculta en un bosque inmenso y misterioso. Convencida por su padre de que el mundo ha desaparecido, Peggy crece en aislamiento absoluto, sometida a una realidad fabricada donde lo lúdico se convierte en supervivencia y lo familiar en amenaza. El hallazgo de unas botas abandonadas marcará un punto de inflexión que desencadena el despertar de su conciencia y la reconstrucción de una verdad sepultada por años de silencio, miedo y engaño. Claire Fuller construye así una narrativa tan delicada como perturbadora, donde la ternura infantil y el terror psicológico coexisten en una historia sobre lo que implica sobrevivir, física, emocional y moralmente, cuando el amor se convierte en una forma de encierro que sobrepasa y atormenta.
Es una brillante historia y que he disfrutado mucho a pesar de tener momentos muy duros. Inviernos largos, veranos fugaces, un piano de madera, Reuben, la supervivencia más absoluta saliendo a cazar en el bosque, a comer cualquier cosa, a bañarse en el río, a dormir de cualquiera de las maneras, pero durmiendo, al fin y al cabo, que es lo que importa. Todo un conjunto de situaciones y circunstancias que me han parecido estar narradas de una forma brillante por la autora, tanto que parecían ser muy reales, muy cercanas, hasta doler.
La autora Claire Fuller debuta así, y lo hace con una primera novela tremenda. Una historia perturbadora que se aprovecha de la inocencia de un infante, de sus fragilidades y sus sentimientos paternales. Lo que más me ha sorprendido es todo lo que tiene la trama dentro de una sola: imaginativa, sorprendente, poética, asfixiante, asombrosa, inesperada, sorpresiva, bella…
En definitiva, un libro que recomiendo leer poquito a poco, ya que está muy bien escrito y se debe disfrutar de cada frase, de cada párrafo, de cada capítulo, como si fuera lo último que vas a leer en tu vida. Un final sorprendente y que no vi venir en absoluto. ¿Acaso eso no es un buen libro? Absolutamente magistral y recomendable.
Nuestros días serán infinitos, de Claire Fuller, es una inquietante novela que entrelaza el thriller psicológico con una absoluta fábula oscura que llega hasta agobiar, explorando los límites del amor paternal, la manipulación y la fragilidad de la realidad percibida. Ambientada en el sofocante verano del año 1976, la historia sigue a Peggy Hillcoat, una niña de ocho años que pasa los días en el sótano de su casa junto a su padre.
Un día es raptada por su padre James Hillcoat, un hombre paranoico y dominado por teorías apocalípticas, y llevada a una cabaña oculta en un bosque inmenso y misterioso. Convencida por su padre de que el mundo ha desaparecido, Peggy crece en aislamiento absoluto, sometida a una realidad fabricada donde lo lúdico se convierte en supervivencia y lo familiar en amenaza. El hallazgo de unas botas abandonadas marcará un punto de inflexión que desencadena el despertar de su conciencia y la reconstrucción de una verdad sepultada por años de silencio, miedo y engaño. Claire Fuller construye así una narrativa tan delicada como perturbadora, donde la ternura infantil y el terror psicológico coexisten en una historia sobre lo que implica sobrevivir, física, emocional y moralmente, cuando el amor se convierte en una forma de encierro que sobrepasa y atormenta.
Es una brillante historia y que he disfrutado mucho a pesar de tener momentos muy duros. Inviernos largos, veranos fugaces, un piano de madera, Reuben, la supervivencia más absoluta saliendo a cazar en el bosque, a comer cualquier cosa, a bañarse en el río, a dormir de cualquiera de las maneras, pero durmiendo, al fin y al cabo, que es lo que importa. Todo un conjunto de situaciones y circunstancias que me han parecido estar narradas de una forma brillante por la autora, tanto que parecían ser muy reales, muy cercanas, hasta doler.
La autora Claire Fuller debuta así, y lo hace con una primera novela tremenda. Una historia perturbadora que se aprovecha de la inocencia de un infante, de sus fragilidades y sus sentimientos paternales. Lo que más me ha sorprendido es todo lo que tiene la trama dentro de una sola: imaginativa, sorprendente, poética, asfixiante, asombrosa, inesperada, sorpresiva, bella…
En definitiva, un libro que recomiendo leer poquito a poco, ya que está muy bien escrito y se debe disfrutar de cada frase, de cada párrafo, de cada capítulo, como si fuera lo último que vas a leer en tu vida. Un final sorprendente y que no vi venir en absoluto. ¿Acaso eso no es un buen libro? Absolutamente magistral y recomendable.
February 20, 2015
Penguin UKFor Tim, India and Henry
Description: 1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children and listening to her mother's grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change.Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared.Her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival. And a tiny wooden hut that is Everything.
Opening: Highgate, London, November 1985: This morning I found a black and white photograph of my father at the back of the bureau drawer.
Oh this definitely needs some music to accompany us as we stroll into the Black forest with a deeply crazed pater, whilst covering our eyes with splayed fingers.At the end: this was an eye-scorching read once I was past the first eighty pages, which were somewhat baggy and bereft of visceral hook. What a cracking debut, a unique storyline, and highly recommended.
Highgate Cemetery is a spooky place, trust me; I lived near there for four years and it wasn't the thought of ghosties and ghoulies that spooked - it was the people the place attracted that would scare the living daylights out of you!Chopin - Revolutionary Etude
Chopin - Funeral March
Railway Children
Stasky and Hutch
Oh Tannenbaum
La Campanella
January 22, 2023
After reading Fuller's Swimming Lesson for the 2nd time I decided to read her debut. My confusion was I went into it thinking it was a short story collection. I started with the audio, narrated by Eilidh L. Beaton. The narration was good but a little too slow so I switched to the print which I found in the Young Adult section of my library.
It is largely a coming of age story but I did not find it a Young Adult read. The story has two timelines told by the same girl, her present day and her telling of her history beginning at the age of eight.
"This morning I found a black and white photograph of my father at the back of the bureau drawer. He didn't look like a liar."
From that beginning we learn of Peggy's upbringing. Her father a survivalist and her mother a concert pianist who is unhappy in her marriage. Her father is busy building and supplying a bomb shelter and holding meetings with other survivalists in their home, learning the skills that will allow them to survive when the rest of the world is destroyed. When the marriage does break down Peggy at eight is taken by her father to a remote part of Bavaria to live in a rough cabin and is told the rest of the world is "gone". There she learns to eek out a life from what they can find in the woods around them for the next 9 years.
It is all told from Peggy's view point and the reader begins to understand that this is not always to be trusted. What did really happen at the end and how much is real and what made up as a way for Peggy to process all that has happened. And what really did happen. Once again Fuller leaves more questions than answers. A wonderful debut, that I really enjoyed and will be thinking about for a long time.
4.5 stars
It is largely a coming of age story but I did not find it a Young Adult read. The story has two timelines told by the same girl, her present day and her telling of her history beginning at the age of eight.
"This morning I found a black and white photograph of my father at the back of the bureau drawer. He didn't look like a liar."
From that beginning we learn of Peggy's upbringing. Her father a survivalist and her mother a concert pianist who is unhappy in her marriage. Her father is busy building and supplying a bomb shelter and holding meetings with other survivalists in their home, learning the skills that will allow them to survive when the rest of the world is destroyed. When the marriage does break down Peggy at eight is taken by her father to a remote part of Bavaria to live in a rough cabin and is told the rest of the world is "gone". There she learns to eek out a life from what they can find in the woods around them for the next 9 years.
It is all told from Peggy's view point and the reader begins to understand that this is not always to be trusted. What did really happen at the end and how much is real and what made up as a way for Peggy to process all that has happened. And what really did happen. Once again Fuller leaves more questions than answers. A wonderful debut, that I really enjoyed and will be thinking about for a long time.
4.5 stars
June 8, 2016
Nope. I didn't like this from the first few pages, but continued to skim read the middle (yawn) only to find that it got worse. Badly written, as if the author just completed a poor lit class and decided to throw in lots of unnecessary descriptive language. I hate this. The first person past tense narrative didn't work for me either, which is strange as this shouldn't have been a problem, but for me it was. I won't even get into the plot. Everything I hate in a book. Such a shame as the premise sounded really interesting.
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