The story collector by Evie Woods
As a change, we tackled an ebook on Libby this month, a gentle and for some, enjoyable read based on Irish history and folklore. If anyone would like to write a sentence or two about these books, please email me janet.bayliss@esneft.nhs.uk – so we can post to the book group part of the ESNEFT book group website.
Overall, we had a mixed response to The story collector by Evie Woods, which is a dual narrative book, set in the early 21st century and harking back to a diary written in the early 20th century by one of the main characters. In the modern tale, Sarah, an American with mental health problems and a crumbling marriage, gets on the wrong flight at Christmas time and ends up in a very rural corner of Ireland, where she comes across stories of the fairies and “good people”. She finds a diary from 1911, in a rather unexpected place, which then starts the second narrative: Anna’s story of her involvement with an American anthropologist who is collecting fairy tales from around the world (the story collector of the title).
As time goes on, the stories begin to be dramatically mirrored in both Anna and Sarah’s life, giving the reader insights into Irish culture and how rooted some of it is in magic and folklore. Some of the group really enjoyed the book, finding it easy reading, although a few of the sub-plots and characters felt a bit stereotyped and we were sorry that Anna’s story in the diary just stopped several pages before the end. Other readers found the novel a bit on the light side and at least one thought that Evie Woods’ first book The lost bookshop was a better book, with a strong plot neatly tied up, and lacking the loose ends of The story collector.
The author was born Evie Gaughan and grew up in Galway, on the Irish west coast. She lived and worked in Canada for a while, before starting to develop mental health issues with social anxiety and panic attacks (like Sarah in the book), moving back to Galway and becoming a writer. Her books were initially self-published, then the ebook firm One More Chapter re-published The lost bookshop online, and the rest is history.
An unusual recommendation was Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, an interesting novel about brilliant young gamers, offbeat but surprisingly involving.
We were back to Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson, a previous warm recommendation, with some people saying that the recent television series based on it is a good adaptation.
For those with a strong stomach, Eeny Meeny, by M.J. Arlidge is a gory but highly readable detective story. Another book in the detective theme is the first in Richard Osman’s new series, We solve murders which is not gory, but might be a satisfying Christmas read.
For a comic approach, try Where’d you go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, a novel of letters, about an agoraphobic architect disappearing before a trip to Antarctica, as you do. It is again, offbeat but somehow draws the reader in.
Several of the above are on Libby, check them out at the ESNEFT Libby pages.