The Last Pier

by Roma Tearne

A beautiful, atmospheric novel about family, love, loss, and regret by a critically acclaimed author How deep the summer had bitten into the land that last August, how cruelly it had burnt into earth and grass and air. What had started out as a pastel and water-faded spring turning so unexpectedly into a splintering, shimmering thing. All that had been required was a spark to cause a fire. Why had no one noticed? The summer of 1939 broke the Maudsley family. Cecily was only 13-years-old and desperate to grow up; desperate to be as beautiful and desired and reckless as her older sister Rose. Now, in her 40s, the family resemblance is uncanny, but Cecily is a shadow of her former self. A part of her died that fateful summer. Returning to the deserted family farm as an adult, Cecily recalls the light before the storm, before the war came and before the terrible family tragedy. It was a summer of laughter and ice cream, promises and first love. She remembers her father’s unrequited love for her, her melancholy mother, and her brittle and argumentative aunt Kitty, and how everyone, somehow, was guarding a secret. None more so than the impossibly beautiful Rose. And in her childhood innocence, between snatches of misunderstood conversations, Cecily helps set in motion a chain of devastating events. Wandering through the family home 29 years later, Cecily hopes to lay some ghosts to rest but the past has yet to give up some shocking secrets.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, War, British Literature, Historical

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2015

About the author

Roma Tearne is a Sri Lankan born artist living and working in Britain. She arrived, with her parents in this country at the age of ten. She trained as a painter, completing her MA at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford. For nearly twenty years her work as a painter, installation artist, and filmmaker has dealt with the traces of history and memory within public and private spaces.

In 1998 the Royal Academy of Arts, London, highlighted one of her paintings, “Watching the Procession,” for its Summer Exhibition. As a result her work became more widely known and was included in the South Asian Arts Festival at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 1992

In 1993, Cadogan Contempories, London, began showing her paintings. In 2000, the Arts Council of England funded a touring exhibition of her work. Entitled ‘The House of Small Things’, this exhibition consisted of paintings and photographs based on childhood memories. They were the start of what was to become a preoccupation on issues of loss and migration.

She became Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in 2002 and it was while working at the Ashmolean, as a response to public interest, that she began to write.
In 2003 she had a solo exhibition, Nel Corpo delle città (In the Body of the City), at the MLAC Gallery in Rome.

In 2006 she was awarded a three-year AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) Fellowship, at Brookes University, Oxford where she worked on the relationship between narrative and memory in museums throughout Europe.

Out of this work came Watermuseum a film set in Venice which was shown at the Coastings exhibition in Nottingham in 2008. In 2008 she received funding from the Arts council of England in order to make a film on memory and migration. This film is due to be premiered in 2010.

Her second novel Bone China was published in April 2008 and her third Brixton Beach will be published in June 2009.

She will be having her first solo exhibition since 2001 at the 198 Gallery, Brixton at the same time.
Roma Tearne is currently a Creative Writing Fellow at Brookes University, Oxford.

Reviews

[Sandysbookaday (on indefinite hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Pier by Rome Tearne is a book that needs to be treated like an expensive bottle of wine. It needs to be read in small sips, to allow the taste and flavours and nuances to fully bloom.

How deep the summer had bitten into the land that last August, how cruelly it had burnt into earth and grass and air. What had started out as a pastel and water-faded spring turning so unexpectedly into a splintering, shimmering thing. All that had been required was a spark to cause a fire. Why had no one noticed?

I did not, at first, enjoy Tearne's writing style. It seemed to me to be largely staccato. And she slipped between time lines without warning so that I was constantly having to go back and reread passages in the correct context. But this aside her writing is beautiful, lyrical, pure. Her characters are complex - all have secrets, desires, petty jealousies, joys and sorrows.

Set against the backdrop of the days leading up to and the early days of WWII we have the story of the intertwined Maudsley and Molinello families; the loves, desires and jealousies of their maturing children, the complex relationships of the adults.

We see everything through the eyes of Cecily, younger daughter in the Maudsley family, who lives in the shadow of her older and very beautiful sister Rose. Cecily, unaware of her own beauty, envies Rose and at once desires to be like her and detests her. When Rose is tragically killed at the outbreak of the war Cecily is bundled off to London to live with her aunt Kitty, sure that Roses death is her fault and totally unaware of the other forces that are in play.

In her 40's Cecily returns to the family farm where shadows and secrets still lurk, waiting to be discovered and shown the light of day.

Tearne explores the suspicions that the outbreak of war cast upon people - the spying, the recording , the treatment of aliens who had been part of the English community for many years.

If you are looking for a happy book, this is not one for you. If you want a breath taking read that will stay with you long after you have closed the covers, then I recommend The Last Pier. This will be staying on my 'keep forever' shelf and I am looking forward to re-reading it many times over.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallic Books Aardvark Bureau for providing me with a digital ARC of the Last Pier by Rona Tearne for review. All opinions expressed within this review are completely my own.

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful story, stunning prose. One to savour and re-read.

[Cold War Conversations Podcast · Rating 5 out of 5]

A genuinely beautifully written book.

Although this book takes a while to get going, stick with it. Roma Tearne writes in a style that I can only describe as part poetry, part cinematic. Her style does take some getting used to but once you have you are led on a stream of imagery and narrative that defy definition.

The story is set on the cusp of Britain’s entry into World War 2 and is told from the view of 13 year old Cecily Maudsley. She lives in an idyllic house on the Suffolk coast with her family and all seems relatively “normal” with her rivalry with her older sister and her friendship with the local Italian family. However, as the story progresses the opaqueness of Cecily’s view of life becomes more transparent as she begins to discover hidden secrets and the family experience a devastating tragedy.

Although not my normal style of book I really liked this and would highly recommend.

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

[Ellie M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleased to receive a review copy from the publishers, Hesperus Press, and in return this is an honest review.

I liked the blurb for this book when I read it, and liked the idea that whilst the setting was wartime WW2 (or the days before) England, the story wasn't necessarily focused on the minutiae of war. Indeed this is a story, which is part family saga, part reflection/ time shift, and part mystery.

Cecily, the main character, is a young girl and we see her return to her family home in later years and she wants to understand how and why she was blamed for a family tragedy. The circumstances of the tragedy are slowly revealed over the chapter and the time shifts were used very well to weave the story back and form and gain an understanding of Cecily in later years.

The build up to the tragedy focuses on preparations for a tennis match, an event held by the family on their farm. Also living at the house is sister Rose who Cecily is desperate to be like, and who everyone thinks beautiful; Agnes, the mother, who blames Cecily for the tragedy; Agnes' sister Kitty who protects Cecily and spends time with the family on the farm, but keeps a flat in London and spends time of trips and meetings; the mysterious father figure, who adores Cecily and has a very mixed relationship with his wife. They are later joined by Tom, an evacuee, a character who becomes more noticeable when the story of the tragedy unfolds. Also key to the story are the Italian family, the Molinellos, who have lived in the UK a number of years but with wartime looming aren't sure where they belong; and the also mysterious Captain Wilson. Captain Wilson arrives during preparation for the tennis match, under the auspices of direction from Government to get an understanding of available agricultural land, in preparation for the possible war with Germany.

All is not as it seems, this is a family drama set at the eve of war, and we see double-dealing, secrets, lies, and simmering passions rear their head and have a devastating affect on the family. These themes are weaved together and slowly revealed. I loved some of the unexpected twists and turns.

This is a book to be read and savoured. It's educational (despite a background in History I wasn't fully aware of how the UK dealt with enemy aliens in WW2). It's beautifully written and I'm struggling to decide what to read next because nothing seems to have the same flow and quality of prose. I shall certainly be returning to read more books by the author.

***************

I contacted the author via Twitter to say how much I enjoyed the book and I was saddened that she sent me the following link in response...http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015...

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much to say about this book. At times it was so confusing and hard to follow but the author's poetic storytelling drew me in. I kept reading and discovered a haunting tale. This book is not for those who need happy endings. In between moments of happiness, it is filled with sorrow.

However, I love how the reader is putting the pieces of the story together as Cecily, the main character, is doing the same. We see the world through her eyes and get to experience her lost childhood and her heartbreaking adulthood as she tries to figure out what really happened in her family and town during the dark days of World War II. There is overwhelming loss, yet there is also some redemption as she is reunited with her past.

This is truly a story that can not be rushed through. It needs to be processed and savored. At times, it is hard to follow but in the end, it is a worthwhile read, even if just to experience Roma Tearne's beautiful prose.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Aardvark Bureau, Gallic Books. Thank you!

[Jackie Law · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Pier, by Roma Tearne, is a beautifully written, evocative tale that explores sibling rivalry, guilt, and the complexities of familial love. Set in and around a bucolic, Suffolk fruit farm on the eve of the Second World War, the atmosphere is tense and claustrophobic as the cast of characters strain against their insular lives. This is not so much a story of a lost way of life as of lives lost due to the constraints of a society that demanded conformity and silent loyalty.

Cecily is thirteen years old and living in the shadow of her beautiful, just turned sixteen year old sister, Rose. With the prospect of war casting a shadow over the long, hot summer, Cecily watches from the sidelines as her sister flirts with lust and adventure. She is jealous of the attention Rose receives, angry that she herself is still treated as a child. By eavesdropping on conversations she picks up snippets of secrets but never fully understands their implications.

Within the first chapter we learn that, by the end of this summer, Rose will be dead. Twenty-nine years later Cecily returns to their now empty farmhouse to try to unravel the memories of what happened and why. The guilt she feels for her part in the tragedy has coloured every aspect of her subsequent life, yet there is much that she cannot make sense of. Her therapist has suggested that she needs to confront these demons. To do so she returns to the home from which she was banished after her sister’s funeral with only scant belongings, but an armoury of blame.

The story unfolds piecemeal as Cecily sifts through her fragments of memory from that summer. The farmhouse has fallen into disrepair but retains the ghosts of her dead family in the form of forgotten scents, furnishings, faded photographs and documents. Cecily wades into the tide of pain that she has long suppressed, recalling events leading up to the devastating fire that stole her sister’s life.

“Nothing sorts out memories from ordinary moments. Later on they claim remembrance when they show their scars.”

Memory is such a treacherous beast, affected as it is by triggers from the present and the filter of hindsight. The telling of this story is strengthened by such unreliability. Cecily recalls how she felt at the time but can now recognise how much she missed. By adding knowledge gleaned over the decades in between, and from documents she discovers in the old house, she is able to piece together the parts played by her parents, her aunt, two strangers who stayed at the farm that summer, and a family of close friends from a nearby town.

These friends, the Molinello family, came over from Italy in the 1920’s and opened an ice cream parlour on the Suffolk coast, producing delicacies previously unknown outside of their native Italy. They required fruit from their local farm and the families soon became close, their children growing up and playing together. Now in their teens the children’s feelings are shifting. Cecily longs for more attention from Carlo, but believes that he, along with everyone else, has been distracted by Rose. As the young people grapple with their burgeoning desires, the adults are playing a more dangerous game. In the end it is their love affairs, jealousies and allegiances that will tear both families apart.

The final quarter of the book tied up the many, scattered threads but somehow lacked the brooding, dark, convoluted beauty of the story telling which had captivated me up until that point. The reading of the diaries and letters felt underplayed, almost bland after the pain of all that had gone before.

Woven into the finale of the tale are true events, rarely discussed horrors from the war. The acknowledgement of this is timely given current treatment of those who are regarded as foreign. It is depressing how little is learned from history. Those who look back on idyllic times are perhaps remembering locations rather than people whose thoughts and actions were far from any ideal.

Despite minor reservations around the denouement, I enjoyed this book immensely. A fine example of outstanding story telling that deserves to be widely read.

My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Aardvark Bureau.

[Ely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review from Tea & Titles

A copy of The Last Pier was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This is a hard book for me to review mostly because I don’t really know how I feel about it. When I first looked it up on Goodreads I was excited—1939, England, family secrets—it all sounded very Atonement to me. Atonement is one of my favourite books, so how could I possibly turn this down?

It has a very similar plot to Atonement—an annoying little girl who doesn’t understand the way her older (but still annoying) sister behaves, which then leads into a whole lot of secrets and issues. In other ways it’s very different—The Last Pier looks at both a British family and Italian family. It was really interesting to see the contrast between how the families operated. I won’t lie, I didn’t like any of the Maudsleys (apart from Joe) at any point but I did like all of the Molinellos the whole way through, but I didn’t enjoy the parts about the Molinellos as much.

It does jump between the two families in kind of a strange way. You’ll be reading about Cecily Maudsley one second, then suddenly you’re reading about Lucio Molinello and then you’re reading about what the cook thinks. It was incredibly jarring. It just kept jumping back and forth between characters and past and present. Usually I don’t mind that, but I found this one particularly hard to follow as sometimes you only had a few lines of one character before it switched. I like the whole trying to work out the secrets backwards thing, and the unreliable narrator but there were times where I thought the mystery was dragging on too much. There were things that just didn’t need to happen for the story to move forward and I found myself getting a little bored at times.

The writing was really nice, but sometimes I had no idea what was going on. Sometimes it felt like the writing was trying too hard to mysterious that it just sort of lost the impact for me. That being said, I really did like how everything came together, and I especially liked the ending—I felt that it really suited the characters and the story.

Could I sum up how I feel about The Last Pier? No, I don’t think I could in plain terms. I know I liked it, but I don’t know to what degree.

Thank you to the people of Gallic Books who were kind enough to send me a copy of this book for review.

[Jaffareadstoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a haunting story of love, loss and family secrets in a world irrevocably changed by the circumstances of war.

In 1939, dark war clouds are gathering and for eleven year old Cecily Maudsley life is about to be changed forever. Palmyra Farm, the Maudsley’s family home, is a place of secrets and hidden desires and Cecily’s relationship with her mother Agnes and her older sister Rose is fraught with petty squabbles and minor sibling jealousies. However, a devastating tragedy shakes the very foundations of Cecily’s family, and the repercussions will reverberate for years to come.

Effortlessly slipping between two very different time frames, the book moves from the 1930’s to the 1960’s when Cecily returns to the family home after an absence of 29 years, and as she remembers the summer she turned fourteen, old secrets are exposed with shocking consequences. However, for Cecily there is no escape from reality and she must come to terms with her past before she can face her future.

Roma Tearne is a very fine writer and is able, with just a few words, to capture the reader and hold them in the palm of her hand. The writing is languid and poetic, almost cinematic in quality, and conjures time and place so perfectly that I felt like I had gone back to a time of hostilities, hidden desires and dreadful secrets. Part family saga, with a well written mystery at its core, this is a fascinating read and is highly recommended.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roma Tearne is one of my all time favourite authors. I enjoy her style of writing. She is an artist too and consequently writes with colour, imagination and a unique style. So far most of her novels have had a Sri Lankan connection, but this one strays from that path and is based in Britain with a focus on the beginnings of wartime England with Italians living in the country at the time. A very interesting perspective and I learnt more about what happened then to Italians living in the UK at the outbreak of war. The sense of suspicion of any stranger, or foreigner, and the worry about how it would change lifestyles were well conveyed.

I have given four - five stars to every book I have read by this author before, but although I love her style of writing, I can't rate this as highly as the others. I think it was the relationships in this story which seemed to stretch the imagination. Everyone seemed to be very involved with everyone else. The connection between the English and Italian families were strong and believable, but put those alongside the sharing of a man by two sisters and it all became a little bit too interconnected for belief.

My absolute favourite was The Swimmer and I loved Brixton Beach.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in April 2015, at the time of writing this review (September 2015_ I’m surprised at how little notice this wonderful book has received. Only 9 reviews on Amazon, and only 16 on Goodreads. And yet it deserves far more acclaim than that. Roma Tearne is a very talented storyteller and all her skills are in evidence in this her latest book. It’s the story of 2 families whose lives are forever intertwined, and it’s an unforgettable tale. A dual time narrative, we are introduced to the families in 1939 just before the outbreak of warand then look back on the events of that fateful year when the adult Cecily Maudsley returns to her childhood home to try and make sense of what happened. The Maudsleys are Suffolk farmers, the Marinellos Italian immigrants. There are secrets to discover, tragedies that unfold, sorrows that are never assuaged. Well-written, well-paced and marvellously atmospheric, with a sure touch for both characterisation and dialogue, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Read it – but keep some tissues close by.

[Anouk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fabulously written novel by Tearne. As good as Brixton Beach or The road to Urbino, she's still got the same great storytelling. Loved the characters and the historical context. Couldn't put it down.

Like The road to Urbino, the Last Pier is connected to Italy, rather than the Sri Lanka of her earlier novels. I guess you can take the girl out of Sri Lanka but you can't take Sri Lanka out of the girl...there is a distict style, full of premonitions and sudden unexpected violence that Tearne does particularly well.

[Stacey Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roma Tearne is one of my favourite authors, but this book wasn’t set in Sri Lanka where her precious novels have been, and for that reason I didn’t enjoy as much. Lovely and poetic writing but disjointed, and character wise I couldn’t warm to any of the English ones, liked the Italian ones more.
Interesting to read the viewpoint from an Italian living in England during WW2, however.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted on:> http://lauraslittlebookblog.blogspot....

I found Roma Tearne's The Last Pier a fascinatingly haunting tale set in the summer before the second world war. We are thrown straight into a tragedy, but only given snippets as to what has actually happened. Focusing on then 13 year old Cecily we transported back to the time before the tragedy and after to the 1960's when Cecily is forty years old.

Roma Tearne's writing is utterly beautiful. She manages to capture the atmosphere and emotions of each character so perfectly, I was completely swept away. I could really picture and feel the heat of that summer. Roma also effortlessly transports us between the 1930's and the 1960's. You can also really see the change in Cecily all those years later. What also keeps this story going is this want of discovering what had happened that caused the major shift and devastation to the Maudsley family. Roma constantly hints at it, causing a deeper need to read on.

Cecily is a character that you can't by deeply empathise with. She is desperate to grow up and constantly in her sister Rose's shadow. There is also the sense that she is loved less by her Mother and is considered a nuisance and the opening scene fuels your curiosity into the part that she played in the tragedy. The other characters that I really loved were the Italian Molinellos; the ice cream shop owners who I thought brought some light and laughter into Suffolk.

Everytime I read historical fiction surrounding the second world war, I find I always learn something new and this was exactly the case for The Last Pier. I had not consdiered what would happen to the Italian and German citizens living in Britain and it was frustrating and sad to read. I think Roma also really captured the atmpsohere leading up to the declaration of war and how everyone was trying to carry on as normal, but the wireless was always on in the background with updates as to what was happening. This was made to feel even more real by Roma putting in snippets from announcements that were made during that time.

The mystery element, the unravelling of secrets and Roma's superb writing are what make The Last Pier an engrossing read. A definite read for fans of historical fiction too,

A fascinating, haunting tale that stayed with me long after I had turned the last page.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a bit of a problem with the structure of this book, the transition between 1939 and the 1960's was "clunky" and didn't flow easily. The constant jumping back and forth within chapters meant I was having to reread a sentence or paragraph to ensure I was following the storyline properly.
That said, this is an atmospheric book, some lovely prose at times poetic. It centres around a family in Suffolk in the summer before the war. Their loves, losses and secrets. Everyone is guarding a secret, who is Robert Wilson? Where does Rose go cycling off to at the dead of night? Where does Selwyn disappear to? why is Kitty always having 7 Sweet Williams sent to her? and everywhere is 13 year old Cecily eavesdropping on everyone picking up fragments of conversations, spying on everyone who are all spying on each other. A tragic chain of events is set in motion altering Cecily's life for ever, returning in her 40's to try and piece together her patchy memories and lay some ghosts to rest. It has to be read to the end as this is when the secrets are revealed and some have been well kept through the book so they take you by surprise.
I would have given four stars if it hadn't been for the "clunkyness" so 3 it is as no halves allowed!

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

For me, this book was very slow and VERY confusing at the beginning and then I realized that I wasn't supposed to know how Rose was killed. That was the story and the mystery of the whole book. However, I do have to say that this book felt as though it was translated from another language and not done very well. There were many parts of it that I did not understand. I did get the gist of it, but there were many times I wasn't sure if it was just filler, if I should be getting something out of it or if it was just over my head. A lot of it didn't relate to anything.

There was also the fact that the story would jump around a whole lot. I would be reading thirty years ahead and all of a sudden it would jump thirty years back or vice versa without any warning or heads up. That was confusing at times. While all the questions to the mysteries were answered, I'm going to say the stuff that I did not understand was fluff meaning this book could have been told in a much shorter version and would have made for a much better book.

I would like to thank Gallic Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this entertaining e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I nearly gave up on this about a quarter of the way through. I found the frequent jumps in time from 1939 to the 1960s very confusing. Something had happened in the lives of Cecily and her sister Rose. However it was only when, during a flash-back we learned more about their mother, Agnes and Aunt Kitty, her sister, that I began to follow the plot more clearly.

The character of Cecily is very well crafted. I really liked the way the complex inter-relationships between her and her family were explored and unwrapped.

It was also informing to read a novel which explored the attitudes towards German and Italian people at the outbreak of the war.

I am so glad that I persevered with this story, it certainly grew on me. There are twists and turns aplenty.
Whilst reading this I was reminded of the Johnny Nash lyric ' the more I find out the less I know'. Eventually most of the loose ends fall into place. A book which makes you ask the question 'who can you trust'?

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, Gallic Books for a copy in exchange for a review.

[Sally Coles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cecily is thirteen years old the summer that World War 2 is threatening. She lives in a lovely house with her family, Joe her brother, who will be going off to war if it happens and Rose her sister who is 3 years older and very glamorous and no longer wanting to spend time with Cecily.

They are all friends with the Italian family who run the ice cream parlour and she is discovering that that she has deeper feelings for Carlo, but like all the young men he only has eyes for Rose. Cecily also spends most of her summer eavesdropping on all adult conversations to find out what is happening everywhere

The story keeps going from 1939 to the sixties when Cecily returns to her family home she is the only member of the family still alive and is trying to come to terms with the events of that summer.

It is a good storyline but I struggled with the contstant jumping from one place to another and in the beginning especially I found it very confusing as to what was happening and who the characters were

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cecily was only 13-years-old in the summer of '39. She was desperate to grow up and be like her older sister Rose. But something happened that summer that tore the family apart and it seemed that everyone blamed Cecily, including herself. Now, 29 years later, she has returned to the deserted family farm. She goes through her memories of that summer and remembers the good times and the bad, her innocence - bits and pieces of conversations that she was too young to fully understand. Her memories combined with things she finds in the old house finally let Cecily make sense of the past.

It started off confusing and that confusion was sprinkled throughout the book - it jumped ahead or went back 29 years with no warning. I had a love/hate relationship with the writing - at times it was beautiful and at times it was way too much, unnecessary, repetitious and also confusing. It dragged in parts. But I couldn't put it down. I had to know what happened. And I loved the setting.

[Wendy Greenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Roma Tearne's writing, particularly her ability to build tension as well as her subject matter. This novel of secrets and half truths is set in the month before the outbreak of WW2 and 30 years later with the narratives drifting into and informing each other. A hot August with impending war is the backdrop to what we know is impending family tragedy, although the way this unfolds is, I thought, masterly. The detail of British life in the pre-war period was fascinating and horrifying in terms of presumed fifth column activity, set against an Italian family who had made their home and had their children on the English coast and what happened to them once Mussolini had allied himself with Hitler. A huge cast of characters all of whom were fleshed out impeccably.
I thought the last third of the book could have been much tighter. Whilst the denouement is perfectly timed and written, much of the detail is repetitive/superfluous and I felt that at least 50 pages could have been cut

[Liza Markling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly loved The Last Pier and Roma Tearne’s writing style. The plot can be a little hard to follow as the storyline jumps back and forth through time, but reading it from the main character’s point of view allows the reader to discover the secrets at the same time as Cecily does in the book.

With WWII rapidly approaching England, Cecily, her family, and their village are torn between preparing for war and living as if there would be no war. When Cecily’s older sister, Rose, suddenly dies, Cecily tries to make sense of her death and the events leading up to it. Cecily feels incredibly guilty, but at thirteen years old, doesn’t understand why or what really happened to Rose. Instead, she is sent to live with her aunt. As Cecily struggles to piece everything together, you will learn together the tragedies that WWII brought upon families and their loved ones.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Latkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminiscent of Ian McEwan's 'Atonement', this novel is about a family living in Suffolk in 1939, the summer WWII started, and the traumatic events which happened to them one night. It moves between 1939 and the 1960s, when youngest daughter Cecily returns to her long-empty old childhood home after 29 years away, and remembers that summer, when she was 14, and her 16-year-old sister Rose died. Just what happened, and who was responsible for her death? Part mystery, part family saga, this is a well-written and engaging novel which I very much enjoyed.

[Beverley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This time switch mystery set in WW2 and present day was an intriguing read. The author's style was a little hard to get used to at first, with lots of jumping around and twists and turns within the plot that could be very confusing. At times it did require quite a lot of persistence to stick with this book, but eventually all of the pieces of the story fell into place to create an overall satisfying read.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of 2 sisters Rose and Cecily whose lives are affected by the onset of WW2. It explores relationships between family and friends and all views of what the war will bring and the future of the village.
I really did enjoy this book, with its twists and turns in the plot but at times found it very confusing as it jumped from present to past and back again.
I received this book as part of a goodreads giveaway.

[Denis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and it kept me riveted throughout
I will highly recommend this book to friends and family as for me it was a beautifully written novel
for me personally it's worth every single 1 of the 5 stars
Thanks

[Simonetta Broughton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I also was lucky to get the unpublished version and have Enjoyed it thoroughly: the tension and the description make the waves in my brain relax!!

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although a novel, the story was inspired by the sinking of the Arandora Star in 1940. The ship left Liverpool in the UK carrying interned expat Italians, Germans and some German prisoners when it was torpedoed by Germans off the coast of Ireland en route to Canada.

As other reviewers have said, the first half of the book is very slow and uneventful so the book could probably have been condensed to half of its final content.

I enjoy novels based on fact when I learn something about history. This one was somewhat tedious hence 3 stars.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book... a story of a woman who returns to her childhood home trying to find answers to her sister's death and uncovers many family secrets during the process.
This book is very well written...although the author moves back and forth in time, it is done with ease and it is helpful that the story is from only Cecily's viewpoint...( her 13 year old self and her 42 year old self).
The writing in this book is remarkable, very picturesque, and it is like actually being in the small British village at the beginning of World War II. Many surprises in store for readers. I would recommend to anyone who loved THE SHELLSEEKERS as much as I did. I will be looking for more of Roma Tearne's novels!

[Lynne Bowker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as it unfolded its complex story. All the characters felt real and the horror of the start of war resonated through the book. Cecily and her teenage angst along with her flighty sister Rose and her sad demise. The shock with the first few chapters about her death and then the rest of the book revealing what actually happened.
The complexity of Cecily and her guilt and confusion about the events permeate the narrative as well as the sense of a lost time and place.

[Kaye Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea this book would be so enjoyable! Purchased for pittance, it was probably one of the best books I've ever read. Set at the beginning of WW II, this story is about young girl in the shadow of her sister, and what secrets exist in her family and those of her community. A spy story? A romance?? A thriller?? Murder or accident??? I really enjoyed this. Unlike anything I have read before.

[Bernice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good a read as the previous book set in Sri Lanka. After a slow start, the story gets more interesting relating a time just prior to WWII when two families in a village in England prepare for the announcement that Britain has declared war. One family, originally from Italy appreciate they could be seen to be a risk despite being committed to their new country.