The second novel by British author Green (Cassandra's Disk
) is an evocative, artfully structured exploration of the mysteries of identity and the journey back from disillusionment to hope. It is 1964, and Anna Larssen, a translator, has retreated to a Norwegian "island at the northern rim of the world" to unravel the story of the two loves of her life: her late French husband, Vincent Galland, an intellectual and a Resistance hero of WWII; and Harry Quinn, a young and enigmatic American with whom she had a brief but powerful affair in 1940 when she believed Vincent was dead. When Vincent is found, wounded but alive, the dutiful Anna returns to him. But thoughts of Harry and what she might have had haunted her then and continue to trouble her—especially when Harry resurfaces. Though a number of plot twists enliven the story's 20-year arc, it primarily charts Anna's transformation from witness to participant in her own life—painfully passive in many of the scenes Green reveals in flashbacks, Anna gradually discovers her own voice and fighter's instinct. Green's cinematic style can occasionally veer over the top, as in one final pivotal scene with Harry and the Maelstrom, a deadly whirlpool introduced in the novel's early chapters. But her control over her material is beautifully re-established with a nuanced ending, one that hints at Anna's future in a quietly optimistic, gratifying manner. (Dec. 5)
