'In the very end – always a surprising time – my father fixated on zablaglione.'
An amazing read that completely wrongfooted my expectations thoroughout. I hardly want to say anything about it, for fear of spoiling it for anybody else. I would just say that it is beautifully and simply written with characters that capture your heart from very early on. A complex mixture of moods and tones, from wry humour to nostalgia, to sadness, to regret, to hope, to understanding, all perfectly balanced, and a truthfulness at its core that gives the whole thing a certain weight. The sort of book that keeps you curled up late at night turning the pages even though you know you've got to get up early for work the next day.
I thought I might try giving the books scores – one for the contents (out of fifty) and one, because these things are important, for the cover, out of ten, so here they are.
45/50
Cover: I quite like the illustration. I think it does a good job of representing the American wilderness in which much of the novel is set, with a hint towards native american art, but if you look closely you see the pattern is made from a revolver. It's a shame they decided to foil-block it, though – I don't see how shinyness relates to the contents at all, and it actually makes it look cheap, and spoils the effect of the nice handdrawn type. Seems like an unnecessary gimmick to make it stand out on the shelf a bit more, to me. So 6/10.