Diane S ☔'s Reviews > The Clockmaker's Daughter

Find your favorite reading spot, grab your beverage of choice, (actually this would be the perfect book to read in front of a fireplace, wrapped in a quilt, watching the snow or rain fall, but I didn't have those choices) and let Kate Morton transport you to Birchwood Manor on the Thames. Yes, she has written about another house, a house that has witnessed great love and unbearable loss, a house that is the repository of many a secret. An immersive, and seductive read, albeit a leisurely one. A Gothic tale, where past and present meet, where there is someone who has witnessed it all, unable to leave.

Lush settings, and fantastic period detail. Of impressions of people on places throughout history. Many characters who tell their stories, not in alternate chapters as is usual in these type of dual timeline stories, but in a brilliant rendering of the blending of time on this house that has witnessed so much. The stories of the present and the past bleed into each other, until the connections between them are revealed. I loved it, I think Morton has outdone herself here. This is not a novel to be rushed through, but one to sink into and enjoy. Many characters, but it is not necessary, maybe a little impossible, to remember and place them all in their timelines, all will become clear. Patience, dear reader.

There is art, a mystery, a disappearance of a beautiful gemstone and a beloved person. There are bereft children, sans parents, and a few young girls who each hold a key to unraveling the story. The resolution may not please all, but I found it fitting, some houses may never give up all their secrets. The prose is wonderful, insightful and many that are quotable. I had a few favorites but could have found many more.

"Human beings are curators. Each polishes his or her own favored memories, in order to create a narrative that pleases. Some events are repared and polished for display; others are deemed unworthy and cast aside, shelved below ground in the overflowing storeroom of the mind. The process is not dishonest: it is the only way people can live with themselves and the weight of their experiences.

"Parents and children. The simplest relationship in the world and yet the most complex. One generation passes to the next a suitcase filled with jumbled jigsaw pieces from countless puzzles collected over time and says, "See what you can make out of these."

The above are a few I loved, believe me there are many more.

ARC from Edelweiss.