A review by tasmanian_bibliophile
The Railwayman's Wife by Ashley Hay
4.0
‘She had never appreciated before the lovely anonymity of the unremarkable life.’
It’s 1948, and in Thirroul, south of Sydney in coastal New South Wales, Annika (Ani) Lachlan lives with her husband Mackenzie (Mac) and their daughter Isabel. When Mac, a railway man, is killed in a tragic work-related accident, Ani needs to forge a new life for herself and Isabel. She is offered a job at the Railway Institute Library, and this enables her to reconnect with other members of the community. Suffering takes many forms. Ani has lost her husband, while Dr Frank Draper feels terribly guilty about the fact that his medical assistance could not save concentration camp survivors who died on their first day of freedom and Roy McKinnon, a poet, has lost hope and his ability to write. Each of them, suffering their own form of loss, is struggling with life.
‘It’s hard enough accommodating death as the thing that interrupts a story you care about, let alone the shudder of realising that there must have been more stories beyond all the ones you’d ever actually heard.’
Thirroul is where DH Lawrence wrote ‘Kangaroo’ in 1922, and the book continues to be popular at the Railway Library. As Ani becomes more comfortable in her role as librarian, she tries to help others (including Roy McKinnon and Frank Draper) to find books that may interest, inspire and help them.
‘You can find anything in a story if you look hard enough.’
This is a bittersweet story. There may be happy endings for some of the characters, but not for all. Ani learns that all lives have different dimensions: she knew Mac well, but not completely. Her daughter, her neighbours and Mac’s workmates add to her knowledge. Ani learns, too, that life progresses. Mac’s death, and the death of so many during World War II, changes (but not concludes) the lives of those still living. There are choices to be made.
‘But it comes, this memory, and just as quickly goes: she’s making a new story here, not reliving an old one.’
I became swept up in this story, and while the ending was not the happy ending I initially hoped for, it fits the story. Life is rarely neat, without some loose ends. I’m wondering, now, how life continued on for Ani.
Note: I accepted an advance reading copy of this novel for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
It’s 1948, and in Thirroul, south of Sydney in coastal New South Wales, Annika (Ani) Lachlan lives with her husband Mackenzie (Mac) and their daughter Isabel. When Mac, a railway man, is killed in a tragic work-related accident, Ani needs to forge a new life for herself and Isabel. She is offered a job at the Railway Institute Library, and this enables her to reconnect with other members of the community. Suffering takes many forms. Ani has lost her husband, while Dr Frank Draper feels terribly guilty about the fact that his medical assistance could not save concentration camp survivors who died on their first day of freedom and Roy McKinnon, a poet, has lost hope and his ability to write. Each of them, suffering their own form of loss, is struggling with life.
‘It’s hard enough accommodating death as the thing that interrupts a story you care about, let alone the shudder of realising that there must have been more stories beyond all the ones you’d ever actually heard.’
Thirroul is where DH Lawrence wrote ‘Kangaroo’ in 1922, and the book continues to be popular at the Railway Library. As Ani becomes more comfortable in her role as librarian, she tries to help others (including Roy McKinnon and Frank Draper) to find books that may interest, inspire and help them.
‘You can find anything in a story if you look hard enough.’
This is a bittersweet story. There may be happy endings for some of the characters, but not for all. Ani learns that all lives have different dimensions: she knew Mac well, but not completely. Her daughter, her neighbours and Mac’s workmates add to her knowledge. Ani learns, too, that life progresses. Mac’s death, and the death of so many during World War II, changes (but not concludes) the lives of those still living. There are choices to be made.
‘But it comes, this memory, and just as quickly goes: she’s making a new story here, not reliving an old one.’
I became swept up in this story, and while the ending was not the happy ending I initially hoped for, it fits the story. Life is rarely neat, without some loose ends. I’m wondering, now, how life continued on for Ani.
Note: I accepted an advance reading copy of this novel for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith