A review by sonofthunder
A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond

4.0

A lovely book. Ok yes, it is a children's book written back in the 70s. It is not an intricately plotted epic or a book of exquisite literary quality. But it sang. This is a book that I couldn't wait to get back to every time I was absent from it. It is a book about a family, about a land, about sadness and loss and fellowship and discovery and joy. Set in a small coastal Welsh village, this book is about a family transplanted from America to Wales, adrift both body and soul. It starts out simply enough and just tells their story as they struggle to deal with their grief over losing their mother/wife. I will not tell too much more, but this story also has fantastical elements linking back to far-ago Welsh history! Those elements I honestly felt were the weaker bits. Still lovely, but not as engrossing as just reading about this family trying to get through a year as they also seek to become closer to one another and the community in which they live. Reading this book, the details and meandering storytelling were so vivid and seemingly well-informed, I assumed the author must have first hand knowledge, and so it turned out to be. The author herself spent time in small-town Wales and so she writes with the assuredness of someone who's walked the same streets, talked to the same people and lived the same life. I was very sad to leave this book. A brilliantly-told story - not complex, but beautiful.