A review by attytheresa
The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman
4.0
A moving story about 2 people who meet during a terrorist attack in Bali in 2002, she injured, he one who rushes to help the injured. The story opens a year later with Jamie, the young woman injured in the attack, returning to Bali for a special commemoration, and perhaps to find Gabe again, the man who saved her. Jamie is reluctant, fearful, eager, compelled. The past year has not been easy.
Ultimately we flash back to the year before, living through the events mostly from Gabe's eyes. Gabe has been living -even hiding- in Bali mourning his son's death and the end of his marriage and life as a result.
By saving Jamie, it soon becomes clear that she saves him, starts living again. Yet the time is not right for Jamie.
The story ends after the commemoration ceremony in Bali a year later, with healing and the promise of a mutual life together, in Bali, one hinting to relationships not just based on having experienced something horrific together, but on deep emotion and connection.
It brings to mind another novel about those surviving terrorism and the aftermath: 'Bel Canto' by Ann Patchett.
Ultimately we flash back to the year before, living through the events mostly from Gabe's eyes. Gabe has been living -even hiding- in Bali mourning his son's death and the end of his marriage and life as a result.
By saving Jamie, it soon becomes clear that she saves him, starts living again. Yet the time is not right for Jamie.
The story ends after the commemoration ceremony in Bali a year later, with healing and the promise of a mutual life together, in Bali, one hinting to relationships not just based on having experienced something horrific together, but on deep emotion and connection.
It brings to mind another novel about those surviving terrorism and the aftermath: 'Bel Canto' by Ann Patchett.