A review by herreadingroom
Little Wing by Freya North
5.0
Florence Lawson, pregnant and afraid at the age of 16, is sent away to the Outer Hebrides to stay with her stepfather's brother to have the baby in solitude and in secrecy.
Nell Hartley works in the Chaffinch community cafe. She visits her mother Helen regularly in her care home. Helen suffers from an unnamed mental illness, possibly dementia, and frequently forgets she has a daughter and often doesn't recognise Nell. It isn't until Helen keeps calling Nell Florence that she decides to look into her family history, and enlists the help of her Aunt Marjorie.
Then there is Dougie Munro, a photographer of garden gadgets for catalogues, who decides to return to the place of his birth on the Isle of Harris.
For a time it is difficult to see how they might all be connected but, ultimately, and beautifully, they are seamlessly woven together in an ending that I just didn't want to reach. Freya's descriptions of the Scottish landscapes and of the Isle of Harris are nothing short of spectacular - so descriptive in fact that you can almost feel the biting wind and driving rain on your face, and hear the sound of the white shell sand under your feet as you walk beside the characters on the beach at Luskentyre.
This is such a beautiful story - incredibly poignant and palpably emotionally moving. The characters felt very real and three dimensional and I felt emotionally invested in them all.
I felt undeniably bereft when I turned the last page and didn't want to leave the characters behind.
A very easy 5 star review from me!
Nell Hartley works in the Chaffinch community cafe. She visits her mother Helen regularly in her care home. Helen suffers from an unnamed mental illness, possibly dementia, and frequently forgets she has a daughter and often doesn't recognise Nell. It isn't until Helen keeps calling Nell Florence that she decides to look into her family history, and enlists the help of her Aunt Marjorie.
Then there is Dougie Munro, a photographer of garden gadgets for catalogues, who decides to return to the place of his birth on the Isle of Harris.
For a time it is difficult to see how they might all be connected but, ultimately, and beautifully, they are seamlessly woven together in an ending that I just didn't want to reach. Freya's descriptions of the Scottish landscapes and of the Isle of Harris are nothing short of spectacular - so descriptive in fact that you can almost feel the biting wind and driving rain on your face, and hear the sound of the white shell sand under your feet as you walk beside the characters on the beach at Luskentyre.
This is such a beautiful story - incredibly poignant and palpably emotionally moving. The characters felt very real and three dimensional and I felt emotionally invested in them all.
I felt undeniably bereft when I turned the last page and didn't want to leave the characters behind.
A very easy 5 star review from me!