Shame

by Melanie Finn

Most of us have a plan. Somewhere to go if something awful happens. Pilgrim Jones doesn't. She looks up at a departures board and takes the first flight.

She alights on the edge of Africa. Over confessions and strong gin, she's lured into a world of mercenaries and philanthropists, delusional heroes and witchdoctors in polyester suits. But what about the beating absence, the thing she's done?

Shame is a novel about a world out of time, about magic and chance, Europe and Africa, learning to live and living to learn. It will transport you from diplomatic dinners to a land where fireflies light the sky, and a desolate, magical coastline where anything - anything - might happen.

Shame will change you.

Genres: Fiction, Africa, Thriller, Contemporary, Mystery, Novels, Book Club

308 pages, Paperback

First published March 12, 2014

About the author

Melanie Finn was born and raised in Kenya and the US. She is author of four critically acclaimed "literary thrillers," Away From You (2004), The Gloaming (2016), The Underneath (2018) and The Hare (2021). While working in a remote area of Tanzania as the writer and producer of the DisneyNature flamigo epic, The Crimson Wing, she founded Natron Healthcare, a small charity focused on bringing health education and health service to under resourced communities in that area. She lives with her husband, the wildlife filmmaker Matt Aeberhard, and their twin daughters on a mountainside in northern Vermont.

Reviews

[Jaidee · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 "terrifying, savage, dismal" stars !!

The Silver Award Winner of 2018 (second favorite read)

Throughout the reading of this novel I trembled in fear, dread and hopelessness.

A woman named Pilgrim Jones is abandoned by her husband in Switzerland and travels to Tanzania. We move back and forth through time and we find out slowly, ominously and terrifyingly her narrative of trauma, grief and immense guilt. A guilt so powerful that she offers herself up for sacrifice. She is lost to herself and never found but seeps deeper and deeper into despair and nothingness.

Along her journey she meets immensely damaged men and women who mean her harm because of their own losses and crimes. We find out more about them through Pilgrim but towards the end through chapters of their own. We initially are disgusted or hate them but as we delve deeper we have compassion but still quake in fear.

This is a novel that seeped slowly into me and followed me into sleep in the form of anxiety ridden dreams of existential angst.

For a long while I sit on the bed and I think about the box and whether I can throw it out. But this isn't possible. I can't just throw away parts of a person. And I think about what Kessy said: Imagine someone hates you this much. Enough to kill. What do you do with that kind of hatred? It must be placed in a drum and sealed, buried thousands of feet below a desert. And even then it might bubble its way to the surface.

A special thank you to Diane S. whose review led me to this book.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not surprised this book made many cool lists, including a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2016. But, be warned: it's not simply "notable", as in, hmmm, tilt head, bite pencil eraser lightly before scratching down an impression that feels sufficiently important. It's notable on steroids, as a gnarled hand strains out from the pages, grips your chin aggressively, whiplashes you, points your face at the page, guttural voice screaming "NOTE THIS!! NOTE IT!"

That's how notable this book is. Yet, surprisingly, not so many people I know have read it yet.

How can I describe it without going down the blah blah blah road of a typical review. Imagine J.M. Coetzee (fresh from writing Disgrace) had a torrid affair with Paul Bowles, (fresh from The Sheltering Sky). This, their lovechild, is moody, dark and mysterious, a bit like Patricia Highsmith, and with about as much optimism of Cormac McCarthy, halfway through The Road.

Intrigued?

It's an expat-in-Africa story. Privileged Pilgrim Jones has a devastating car accident in a small town in Switzerland, leaving three children dead, after finding out hubby is leaving her to start a family with someone else. What starts out as a first world problem twists into an unspeakable tragedy. Untethered, she finds herself in Tanzania. She meets an array of odd characters, the kind of people you might find in Yellowknife or any other remote area where life is brutish - people who are damaged or escaping demons, who haven't got much use for a regular urban existence. It is a group of sufferers, of wanderers, of lost people who don't want to be found. There's an air of danger, grief, and paranoia, mixed in with the burning heat. This Africa is malevolent, violent, and beautiful.

See, now I've already said too much. I've gotten into the blah blah blah. Sorry about that. Let's just say I was gripped by Pilgrim and her story from the beginning. I was knocked out by the precise guillotine of this author's words.

So why not five stars, you ask? About 3/4 of the way through, the story abruptly changes point of view. What had been a powerful story told through Pilgrim's eyes, shifted and shifted and shifted again between several lesser characters. While they are each interesting in their own right, I found the new narrations less effective. I can almost imagine the conversation between Melanie Finn and her editor, when she was considering this technique:

MF: "I'm not sure if I should change the POV, but I want to get deeper into the other characters who have suffered great griefs, and I don't know how else to do it."
Editor: "But Melanie, your readers have come this far with Pilgrim - aren't you afraid that they will suffer abandonment issues when you toss them to one of the half-dozen motley crew, playing 'musical protagonists'?"
MF: "I don't know, but how else can I better create tension than by making my main character's voice suddenly disappear? I feel like a rebel. I'm doing it."
Editor: "You're freaking brilliant, so we're gonna let you do what you want."
MF: "Shucks, thank you! Oh, this seems like a good time to mention the ending is going to be kinda ambiguous. It's going to drive some people crazy."
Editor: Shrugs. "I've got faith that your haunting, haunted story will rise above any little quibbles people might have. The way you describe the horror of loss, the stain of guilt and the persistent, tiny seeds of hope - well, that will have your readers following along compulsively, tears stinging their eyes, wanting more but at the same time begging for mercy."

For the most part, the editor is right. This is a painful, searing book that has left scorch marks on my heart.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pilgrim Jones, finds herself abandoned in a Swiss town, her supposedly loving husband having left her for another woman, a woman already expecting their first child. Heartbroken and unmoored, she is involved in an accident that kills three young children. Although cleared of responsibility for the accident, Pilgrim cannot forgive herself and makes her way to Tanzania, trying to escape her past. There she will meet people also running from their pasts in various says. She will, also be followed by one who means her harm and one who loves her, or believes he does.

The atmosphere of this novel is haunting as are the characters she encounters. Each will play a significant part in the ensuing drama that unfolds. Beautifully written ,the first half narrated by Pilgrim herself, the second part, after a near tragedy will have Pilgrim disappearing from the story which is than taken up by the five people she encounters. A modern day Canterbury tale perhaps but without the humor. I was surprised by how taken I was with this very different story, don't think I have ever read anything quite like it before. The prose is beautiful in places, exceptional actually, but the overall tome is dark in contrast. Pilgrim as her name implies is a searcher, a search for the way to come to terms with her past, her guilt and a search for a new place to belong.
The ending a total revelation but so extremely fitting.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Gloaming", is a sophisticated psychological impressive novel...with an intense
shocking ending.

The main character is named Pilgrim ( interesting don't you think?). Pilgrim Jones.
At the beginning of the story she seems as happy as can be living in Geneva... in love with her husband Tom. There isn't a day they don't make love with one another.
Yet..
There is another woman named Elise. Long story short, Elise is pregnant and Tom leaves Pilgrim for her. Just like that. He's even 'nice' about it... wishing to help Pilgrim at different times in the book. Ha. He can't for the life of himself understand why she would be bitter.
Soon after Tom leaves, Pilgrim is involved in an accident leaving 3 children dead. With horrific guilt, even though not found legally responsible- she bolts -- leaves for Africa. She meets locals, doctors without medicine, policeman without laws, mercenaries, and philanthropists..... each with their tragic past.
A witch doctor's curse sends everyone off into another remote town of Tanzanian.

Colorful multilayered characters- unprofessional and absorbing--
....this is part drama - part mystery thriller .....leaving me to question what defines
the difference between being innocent or guilty?

Very well written... my first book by Melanie Finn!

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel gripped me, as in, by the throat. I'm not sure that it works entirely as a coherent story--the author seems to want happy endings all around but a few of the characters definitely get the short end--but I'm just going to let it go, dears, because the writing is brilliant. Finn's eye for scenic detail reminded me of the great travel journalists Ryszard Kapuściński and Paul Theroux. Her fiction is full of grit and threat. I could see what was going on in every scene, in a visceral and smelly and vivid way. Really great.

At the end of the first part of the novel I paused before I read on, because the story had come to a logical stopping point and I wanted to think about how it felt for the story to end right there. It could have ended there and I would have been quite satisfied. But then, Finn takes this story several levels beyond an already-great stopping point, and in a series of codas she adds ever more humanity and meaning to her characters, and to her story. It was magical.

This is my third novel published by Two Dollar Radio--the others were The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish by Katya Apekina and The Only Ones by Carola Dibbell. All three of these novels have a similar resonance, a really unique quality of storytelling that makes me want to continue looking for novels by this publisher. If you liked one of these I think you will also enjoy the other two.

[Helene Jeppesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea what to expect from this book since I didn't know much about neither the story nor the author. I found the beginning very puzzling because it takes place both in Europe and in Africa, but I quickly came to realize that this is one of those books created like a jigsaw. You get hints along the way, but you won't get the complete picture until the end.
The protagonist, Pilgrim, has done something unforgivable in her past which has forced her to go to Africa. As we realize what she has done, this becomes a story that raises questions about guilt and responsibility. The narration shifts in perspective, and as we get more and more into the story I came to love it very much.
This was a refreshing read which kind of reads like mystery but also like a simple story about family, loss and identity. I loved how it takes place on different continents and how the differences between these are enhanced. So my initial confusion and sceptisim was quickly turned to a surprising fascination, and I ender up being quite a fan of this novel.

[Claire Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

My perfect kind of novel. Beautiful writing, with every sentence crafted and considered, but with a gripping story and characters. In Switzerland, Pilgrim's husband leaves her for another woman and shortly afterwards she has a terrible car accident, the consequences of which reach far across the world. She turns up in Tanzania, traumatised and guilty, waiting and watching for when her shame will catch up with her.
I will be in conversation with Melanie Finn on 2nd February 2021. Visit www.clairefuller.co.uk/upcoming-events/

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delighted to see this on the Guardian-run Not the Booker Prize shortlist. It’s a powerful story of regret and the search for redemption. Though it has elements of a straightforward psychological thriller, the daring structure and moral complexities are more akin to Graham Greene. In alternating chapters, Pilgrim Jones contrasts flashbacks to her car accident and the subsequent investigation back in Switzerland with her present-tense African odyssey. This is Conrad’s Africa, a continent characterized by darkness and suffering. The question of culpability remains murky, yet the possibility of salvation shines through.

Full review in April 2015 issue of Third Way magazine.

Related reading: The Breath of Night by Michael Arditti

[Jerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of heavy topics in this book. It’s about the violence, both physical and emotional, that people can do to each other, as well as the guilt, grief, and hope for atonement that comes with it. We follow a young woman to Tanzania after a devastating traffic accident in which three children are killed. Everyone she meets there has their own pain and grief to deal with also. While not a light read, I found it immersive.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Often very impressive and always compelling, convincing and involving. Very occasional slippages into soapishly-melodramatic dialogue never seriously detract from the overall success of the novel.

[gam s (Haveyouread.bkk) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 WHAT-THE-FUCK-IS-GOING-ON Stars



Wait...THAT'S IT??? So vague and unsatisfying. Like what's up with the ending, what the hell did that mean? What's the point? And Why? How? What? Who?

Weird but not THAT weird. Could have been better since it's been paving a creepy path since the first few chapters. UGHHHHH disappointing.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a review copy of this title from Two Dollar Radio via Edelweiss.

The country of Tanzania has one of the highest rates of albinism in the world, but it is also one of the most dangerous places for albinos to live. They are shunned by their communities because they are viewed as ghosts who dwell on earth and never die. They also live in constant fear of violence because body parts from albinos are sought out to be used in potions made by African witch doctors. When Pilgrim Jones, the female protagonist in Melanie Finn’s latest novel, finds herself in dusty, decrepit and remote towns of Tanzania, she encounters firsthand the superstition and violence that plagues albinos living in East Africa.

Each of the characters in this novel, which has been described as a literary thriller, are dealing with grief and loss in different ways. Pilgrim, whose point of view takes up more than half of the narrative, has fled to Tanzania because of a double tragedy that she suffered while living in Switzerland. Pilgrim’s story alternates back and forth between her time spent in Switzerland and in East Africa. Pilgrim was married to a human rights lawyer named Tom who suddenly abandons her for another woman with whom he is having a child. Pilgrim married Tom while very young and has put off her own career aspirations in order to follow him around the world while he prosecutes people who are guilty of the most heinous human rights violations. Pilgrim is numb and floating around in a world in which she doesn’t know how to live without Tom as her husband. The only reason she was living in a small town in Switzerland was due to the fact that this was the last place to which Tom had led her.

The narrative shifts back and forth abruptly and Pilgrim suddenly finds herself in the hospital with very little memory of the tragic car accident in which she was involved. Finn draws our attention to cruel fate and the series of coincidences which add up to a tragedy that has far-reaching and devastating effects. Pilgrim can’t help but think that if Tom hadn’t abandoned her then she would not have been in the car that rainy, sad day. She tries to escape the haunting memories of her failed marriage and the car accident that caused so much grief and sorrow by choosing one of the most remote places on earth to hide; she knows that in Tanzania no one will know anything about her or her past. But what she fails to realize is that as a white, American woman, which is an anomaly in East Africa, she attracts a great deal of interest.

Finn describes Tanzania in a poetic language that brings us to the dark continent that is simultaneously beautiful and ugly. Pilgrim rents a cottage in Tanzania that overlooks a bay. A stout, Midwestern woman named Gloria, who has fled the U.S. in order to escape her own misery, rents her the cottage:


We stand in the gloaming. The late evening light, soft and translucent, has made the world benign. The house is white and round and sheltered by red-blooming tulip trees. A hundred yards from the door, a low sandy cliff dips to the sea and a swarm of mangroves. White egrets flock to roost. The sun slips behind the mangroves, creating spangles and diamonds through the leaves. The air vibrates with the wild looping song of Bulbul birds.

But the beauty of this place is tainted by albino body parts left in the box, orphans who are abandoned because they have AIDS, and pregnant women who die because there is no proper health care available. The second part of the novel is told through the eyes of characters with whom Pilgrim has come in contact and who are fighting back against grief that, at times, feels all-consuming. Dorothea, for instance, is a doctor at a clinic in Magulu where basic supplies like antibiotics and bandages are scarce. Dorothea’s husband was Kenyan and he disappeared one night over the border into his native country with their two young sons. Magulu is as close to Kenya that she can possibly be so Dorothea takes a job at this pathetic, wretched clinic. Her boyfriend is the town policeman who has seen people inflict the most awful atrocities on one another. Magulu feels like a desolate place where no one really wants to go but people end up there because of an awful twist of fate.

The book ends with the point of view of Detective Inspector Paul Strebel who was the lead investigator on Pilgrim’s car accident in Switzerland. Strebel is a sad man who is going through the motions of his life, especially where his marriage is concerned. But when he meets Pilgrim, a lonely and vulnerable woman who has been abandoned by the rest of the world, he experiences lust and a sexual awakening. He knows this is unethical and wrong but he can’t help himself:


But now he felt the urge to touch this young woman, to hold her and comfort her—and he could not pretend the urge was simply protective. He as appalled. And in equal measure, he was stunned by the small hollow at the base of her throat, by the upturn of flesh where her upper lip bowed. It was as if she’d suddenly come into focus; she was clear, so brilliantly, perfectly clear and distinct against the grey, oaty ass of his life. He felt a surge of happiness—of being alive.

Strebel sees people at the worst moments of their lives, when they have lost loved ones and suffered unspeakable tragedies. He sees in Pilgrim an escape, even if only temporary, from his “grey” and oftentimes black existence.

Melanie Finn has demonstrated in this book that she is a master of lyrical prose which at times has a staccato feel due to her penchant for short and abrupt sentences; yet each word flows, one into the next and they fit together into one beautiful and descriptive narrative. I highly recommend The Gloaming not only as a literary thriller but also as a book which enlightens us about the contradictory nature of the beautiful content of Africa and as a story that has a timeless message about the cruel nature of fate.

[Joachim Stoop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Original, dark, claustrophobic. But not my book.

btw. it didn't help that for the zillionth time Africa was described as a savage, primitive, scourching inferno full of murder, ghosts, witch doctors, orphans, aids and wildlings. Is this still the full story of that continent, yes? Strange for a writer who was born there

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book that surprised and enthralled me from start to finish.
A new author to me; a book read on summary and outline but which surpassed my expectations.
It is one of the bonuses of NetGalley and publishers who promote their books for a honest apprasal and review. The other real advantage of this read and review process as it allows me to access genres and subects I might pass over in the rush to read the next crime thriller.
I am also a sucker for a manipulated timeframe and a change of direction through different points of view. For me it helps me to get me fully immersed in a novel and its characters; it assists me to be more alert and concentrate on the story as it unfolds with different chronologies.
A deep and profound story into how people behave in different circumstances and cultural settings. It shows the importance of social connections and how a disconnect can occur following serious changes in life choices or traumatic events.
Pilgrim is an attractive young woman who takes off to Africa when her marriage breakdown. Already an outsider in her adopted Swiss home her allienation is more cleaar against the differences in indiginous peoples and belief in old ways and the spirit world.
In more ways the novel explores pity, shame and seeking self awareness for the future, hope and redemption.
I loved the characters both named and uncredited as Pilgrim's relations are followed and are structured often by prejudice, own beliefs and experience or her own attractiveness.
I can not praise this book or its writing style, vocabulary explored enough.

[Book Riot Community]

A dark, intense novel of mystery about a woman, Pilgrim, who is fleeing the disaster that was her marriage, and, overcome with guilt after a horrible accident, runs off to Africa to lick her wounds. But when a body turns up and is suspected of being a curse created by witchcraft, she and the town’s citizens are set on edge trying to figure out the curse’s intended recipient. Not helping with matters is Pilgrim’s sinking feeling that she’s being followed. Did I mention it was dark? It’s also terrific.


Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: http://bookriot.com/listen/shows/allt...

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off beautifully. I was captivated by Pilgrim, by the language, the slowly unfolding, yet quiet horror of her story. Soon I was enraptured by descriptions of Africa, of strangers in strange lands, and the intrigue of new characters. So what happened? At a critical point in the story, we no longer "hear" from Pilgrim. Instead, an assortment of supporting characters take over and while a few pieces of the plot are filled in, it seems the reader is left drifting further and further away as though we took a wrong turn down the river and have ended up in an ever narrowing stream that just dries up completely leaving us landlocked and stuck.

I don't know what this trend is, authors leaving it up to dear reader to puzzle out the endings of things, but I spent more time wondering why, in the hands of such a gifted writer, the ending was left so vague. Did she get tired of writing? Did she think it would be "clever" and perhaps those of us who are not clever must bear the burden of our own uncleverness? I just don't know but I wish these authors would stop it already. Just tell us what happened and I promise I won't think less of you, in fact, I would hold you in the highest regard because this book could have been one of the all time greats.

[Story · Rating 5 out of 5]

Atmospheric, sad and gripping.

[Edward Goetz · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of good reviews on this book, so I will not rehash the plot, merely speak to what I loved about it.

It's a great story, complex, and ultimately satisfying. Ms. Finn's writing is gorgeous. As an avid reader, I really enjoyed the structure of her sentences and her choice of words.

Finally, within the book, were several instances of the reality we all live in. What I mean is, the author made me think about life and how to live it through her characters and story. I find that special.

"Because life, like a wire, requires tension on both ends. You care to live and someone else cares that you live. What's the point of holding the slack end."

You have to work to make life work.

[Jolanta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another novel in which the most uninteresting character is put in an exotic, high-stress locale to make her character and personal journey seem more exciting and dramatic. I liked the setting and could appreciate some authentic details that sprinkled in. But overall it’s just another unsatisfying novel you forget about once you close the book.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of Melanie Finn’s novel—THE GLOAMING—evokes a mood of impending darkness filled with beautiful light. “The late evening light, soft and translucent, has made the world benign.” The book delivers on this promise in a tale filled with tragedy, but offering paths to redemption. The protagonist’s name—Pilgrim—also is evocative because she is on a pilgrimage of sorts from betrayal, death and ostracism to self-realization. In a way, THE GLOAMING reminds one of Bunyan’s allegory (“Pilgrim’s Progress”), which told of a man’s journey from a deeply flawed world to one that was more benign and fulfilling. Not unlike, Christian in “Pilgrim’s Progress,” our Pilgrim encounters multiple fellow travelers on her journey with their own tragic stories.

Finn explores themes of guilt and the search for salvation with her intricate plot. Pilgrim is betrayed by her husband, who leaves her for another woman. While grieving the loss of her marriage, she has an unfortunate automobile accident resulting in the death of three children. Because the locals in her close-knit Swiss community see her as a kindermörderin (“child murderer”), Pilgrim flees to Africa with vague ideas of hiding or possibly starting anew. Finn relates this portion of her story using a first person narrative, but she abruptly switches to third person in the latter half of the novel. At first this is disorienting but quickly works to ramp up tension and suspense because she introduces a cast of characters who interact with Pilgrim in ways that reveal them as fellow travellers in the search for redemption from various tragic events in their own lives.

Having lived in Africa, Finn adeptly demonstrates considerable insight into its geography and culture, especially the expats living there. Pilgrim settles in the remote Tanzanian village of Mugulu. There she meets several tragic figures. Dorothea is the local medic whose children were abducted by her estranged husband; Kessy is a policeman without any resources to do his job; Gloria is an American who is attempting to come to terms with her son’s untimely death by establishing an orphanage for children with AIDS; Martin Martins is a sociopathic Ukrainian soldier of fortune looking for his next score; and Harry is a drunken bush pilot who is trying to forget an unfortunate flying accident where he caused the death of several children. Two Swiss nationals with their own tragic stories also appear: Detective Inspector Paul Strebel, burned out from his job and failing marriage, is taken with Pilgrim and journeys to Africa out of concern for her welfare; and Ernst Koppler, the father of one of the children killed in Pilgrim’s accident, believes he has nothing to live for after also losing his wife to cancer.

Finn’s use of ghosts appearing at odd times in the story and a strange curse involving a butchered albino child as plot devices to increase suspense, mystery and tension in the narrative are not well developed and minimally effective. Those minor failings notwithstanding, the narrative is endowed with enough shadowy and threatening content to satisfy any reader looking for a dark literary thriller. The plotting is well paced, clever and intricate. The ending is totally satisfying because it neatly ties up the various plot lines while offering few pat answers.

[Robert Blumenthal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure about this book after about 50 pages. I really liked the writing and the general story line, but I was afraid that it would be a bit too intense and lurid for my taste. Make no mistake, the author pulls no punches--there are scenes of animal torture, abuse, mercenary killings, and wicked thoughts. However, these become less frequent as the novel evolves, and it becomes quite gripping and very thought provoking.

A beautiful 32-year-old American woman is abandoned by her husband for another woman while in Switzerland. She proceeds to run over three young children with her car (maybe accidental, maybe not), and all three of the children die. She is confused and devastated, and she decides to escape to Tanzania after the tragedy is officially considered an accident. While in Tanzania, she goes on a personal and spiritual journey that involves connecting with others who have experienced guilt and grief, as well as shamans and ghosts and curses. It is all wonderfully wrought and quite compelling, though just a bit confusing overall. The ending is said to be intense and shocking, though I did not find it to be so. I saw it more as an atonement and redemption and moving forward, against the backdrop of the wild, mercenary atmosphere in Eastern Africa.

The writing is sublime, if a bit grisly at times (e.g., a police inspector imagines taking his wife's arm and sticking it into the garbage disposal and grinding it to a pulp). However, there is also much beauty and compassion in this novel, and the journey is overall an important and satisfying one, in my opinion. So to sum up, this is a dark, dismal, but touching and intelligent story, with much to say about the human condition in the undeveloped African continent.

[Dannielle Insalaco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting in a quiet way that gets under your skin.

[Cherise Wolas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A richly textured and finely plotted literary thriller/mystery set in Switzerland and Tanzania. Pilgrim Jones, the narrator of the first 175 pages, married to an influential human rights lawyer, finds her marriage undone and herself abandoned and alone in a Swiss canton, which sets off a lethal event. When she wakes, she's in a Swiss hospital, her car having skidded in the rain into a bus stop where children were waiting to be taken to an amusement park for the day. Violence and loss are at the heart of this book - that of Pilgrim, as well as the other well-imagined characters, a kindly Swiss police inspector, a tiny Tanzanian doctor, a blowsy Midwestern American starting an AIDs orphanage, a Ukrainian mercenary, and an old drunk, each of whom have their own voices and chapters. Toggling between years and settings, the story unfolds in cool, sometimes elliptical prose, and the ending is open-ended and fizzing. I devoured it.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

review tomorrow

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel several ways about The Gloaming. Its very well crafted and the second half of the novel told from varied povs made it much more much more interesting. I loved how the perspective changed and added depth to the novel. The writing is beautiful. But I was a smidge uncomfortable with the idea of Africa as a place where white people go to disappear or atone. And there is a magical Negro who may be a ghost.

I''m making it sound bad and it isn't at all - I think I am just really sensitive right now about race and how it's portrayed. Do our ideas about Africa influence the way we treat people of color? I think so. That said, I see how Finn is playing around with familiar tropes - I'm just not totally sure she transcends them.

I'd add a half star if I could.

[(jessica) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow-burn novel with mysterious layers, The Gloaming feels like the type of literary mystery (albeit the slightly unsatisfying, slightly unexplained kind) that could easily go mainstream if it was given the right opportunity. Finn succeeds at building an atmosphere that suggests menace without immediate threat, and there's something strangely claustrophobic about Pilgrim's situation even as she moves to larger and larger playing fields.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing is explained in this book. Everything is so vague and it does not make sense. I do not know what in the hell happened at the end. Please explain if you can figure it out. This one was not for me.

[Lindsay Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is dark magic and bright magic. Gorgeous and haunting. Devastating and hopeful.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anytime I needed to put this novel down I thought about it until I could sit down with it again. I was drawn in with the first paragraph and remained captivated. It explored the most horrifying experience humans could endure and the emotions that result. The characters all were complex and had good and bad qualities, as real people do. Pieces came together in an intricately constructed plot. The novel seemed to have ended but then points of view switched from the protagonist’s first-person narrative to those of the people the she met along the way. It was interesting to get their backstories this way and might have been lazy on the author’s part but worked really well for me as things clicked into place like a well-fitted puzzle. Very entertaining and thought provoking.

[Aaron Broadwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!

Pilgrim Jones is an American who has fled Switzerland after the breakup of her marriage and a horrific accident.

She comes to small-town Tanzania to escape. But once there, she encounters others also trying to escape. And the Swiss tragedy is not so easily forgotten or escaped from.

Well-written and compelling to me...

[My only complaint -- why is it titled "The Gloaming"? I don't think that helps the book find its potential readers...]