event – missmesmerized

It’s been twelve years since that one day which changed Kieran’s life. Now, with his wife Mia and their three-month-old daughter Audrey, they come back to Evelyn Bay to visit his parents. His father’s dementia has been deteriorating more quickly recently and thus they are moving house and sorting out stuff. Only shortly after they have arrived do they also meet their old friends: Olivia and Ash, now a couple, then also victims of that fierce storm which not only took Kieran’s brother’s life but also Olivia’s sister. And they meet Sean and his nephew Liam who lost his father and who still holds Kieran responsible for that. When the young waitress Bronte is found murdered on the beach, the memories of that unforgettable day resurface and all the emotions, too. Will twelve years after the disaster, which brought so much suffering and pain, the same happen again to that small community?

I liked Janes Harper’s novels “The Dry” and “Lost Man” since she is brilliant at catching the atmosphere and transferring this in her novels. “The Survivors”, too, has a special ambiance which defines the novel. The small circle of characters who all share the memories of that disastrous day and who all, in their own way, still can feel the pain that is connected to the storm and its outcome. Thus, the murder case at hand quickly becomes much less interesting than the question if people are hiding something, if the narrative of the events has to be re-written.

At first, I was misled by the title which I thought referred to the people who had survived the aforementioned storm, however, it is something completely different yet decisive for the plot. Even though the investigation on Bronte’s murderer seems not really to advance, the novel gets increasingly thrilling with more aspects of the storm day being evoked. Many characters act highly suspiciously which I totally adored since it made me spin one theory after another about the events. In the end, Harper provides a credible solution and no questions remains unanswered.

It is the landscape and the people formed by it who move at their own pace and who make “The Survivors” a wonderful read. It is a novel about how you can survive when others have died and especially how you can live with the guilt of being a survivor. For some however, being alive does not mean having survived, it is a daily fight against death. For me, the strongest novel by the author so far.

Dana Goss, a wealthy heiress only a couple of years shy of 70, decides to visit Jackie, once her best friend with whom she shared everything, but whom she has not seen for almost five decades. Jackie sees Dana approach but hides and does not open the door. It triggers memories of a time long long ago. At the same time, a young man meets his father to tell him about his new-born granddaughter, soon after, the father dies from an aneurysm, not only leaving his son behind but also many questions. His mother Alice might answer them but this would mean revealing a secret she has kept to herself for so many years that she cannot reveal it now. Taxi driver Lupita Lopez in Kauai is also unexpectedly confronted with the almost forgotten past when she receives a phone call. All these lives are connected by events that each of them has ignored successfully.

Bill Clegg’s story is set in the fictional town of Wells in Connecticut where the old farm house is the starting point of some live changing events. The different characters narrate their stories thus filling gaps the other leave and adding another perspective to what has been told before. They all try to hide things they do not want to think about, but those secrets push to the surface to be ultimately revealed.

At first, the different accounts seem only loosely connected, it takes some time to understand how they are linked and why after all those years, the memory of that time is still that hurtful. The characters are all complex in themselves and presented in detail thus giving insight in their state of mind and thinking. There is not the ultimate good guy and the bad guy; it is lives having taken a turn which is not to be undone, decision that have been made which also had consequences, good ones as well as bad ones. Thus, a wonderful illustration of how life on earth works sometimes.