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A Gathering Light - Jennifer Donnelly


TammyRich

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A Gathering Light - Jennifer Donnelly

Publisher: Bloomsbury

This is coming of age novel based around a real life murder of a young woman at the beginning of the twentieth century in North America. The discovery of a body in a lake is witnessed by 16 year old Mattie Gokey who is working at the hotel where the woman had been staying.

 

The story moves backwards and forwards between Mattie's life in a year before and as it leads up to the discovery, and after the event. We see Mattie coping with her life as she is torn between a desire to be a writer and having to support her family in the harsh farming environment of the time due to the loss of her mother. She finds, to her distress, that she has become the custodian of a set of letters belonging to the woman whose body is found in the lake and the same lady had previously asked her to dispose of them.

 

The book is part murder mystery, part coming of age as she is forced to face dilemmas beyond her years, part romance and part historical fiction.

 

I read it really quickly over a matter of days which is unusual for me. I was totally absorbed by the world that Mattie lived in and really felt for her and many of the other characters in the book. It was well written and although labeled a coming of age book I do not think it is purely for a teenage market or even aimed at it. Highly recommended. :018:

 

Winner of the Carnegie Medal

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There was a lot of controversy surrounding this when it won the Carnegie Medal. It was the first books written by an Anerican to win, and many people couldn't see why it was published as a Young Adult novel, rather than an Adult one - an opinion that was reinforced by it's inclusion on a Richard and Judy Summer Reads list!

 

I read it as a result of all this debate and found it a heartwarming, touching and well-written novel. I really clearly remember the descriptions of the Adirondacks and the forest.

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