Pearl
Ratings7
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings7
Average rating3.6
Marianne is eight years old when her mother goes missing.
Left behind with her baby brother and grieving father in a ramshackle house on the edge of a small village, she clings to the fragmented memories of her mother’s love; the smell of fresh herbs, the games they played, and the songs and stories of her childhood.
As time passes, Marianne finds it difficult to adjust, fixated on her mother’s disappearance and the secrets she’s sure her father is keeping from her. Yet, in one of her mother’s dusty old books, she discovers a medieval poem called Pearl, and, trusting in the promise of its consolation, it seems as if her life begins to parallel the poem’s course.
But questions remain. Marianne is ever more tormented by the unmarked gravestone in the abandoned chapel and the tidal pull of the river, and as her childhood home begins to crumble, the past leads her down a path of self-destruction. Can Marianne ever come to understand her mother’s choices? And will her own future as a mother help her find her peace?
About Siân Hughes
Reviews with the most likes.
A beautiful and tender ode to mothers and daughters and those we leave behind told through the eyes of a young girl who loses her mother in mysterious circumstances as a young child and how this shapes not only her life, but that of her father, brother and daughter. Weaving in myth and legend and poetry, Hughes' writing is lyrical and lushly descriptive, yet leaves plenty for the reader to imagine through subtle clues and deft touches such as Marianne's father's relationship with another woman, or what exactly happened to her mother.
