Secondly, the jacket blurb is intriguing: 'Sile (pronounced Sheila, BTW) is a sophisticated 39 year old Indian-Irish flight attendant living in Dublin, Ireland Jude is a 25 year old British-Canadian historian from rural Ireland, Ontario who has never flown before. First of all, it is by the author of 'Room' which I enjoyed. I pick up this book on CD at the library.

Not even Stephanie Cannon's narration could elevate this beyond 2* Indeed if this book was read blind with the author's identity concealed then I really wonder which publishing house would take it on.Īt the end I was like that little raccoon scrabbling around wondering what had happened to the book I was looking forward to because there was nothing there at all. It is clear that she has drawn heavily on her own life story but this is not enough.

This is particularly disappointing because Emma Donoghue is capable of so much better as those of you who've read Room will know, and that is a book worth trying. It actually opens promisingly with a mishap with a passenger on board an aircraft but the story disintegrates promptly after this. It reminds me of a clip on the This is a story of Canada meets Ireland, town meets country, and girl meets girl. I don't know anyone who would enjoy this. It has its flaws, but I love anything set in Canada, and parts were quirky and quaint.ĭo yourself a favour. It's not so simple as to 'just move.' This was not a hot and heavy novel by any means, there is barely mention of sex and intimacy, but rather how to join two lives together when they are such different people. I have often thought of couples from different countries who have to navigate a sea of complications in order to be together, and the author highlighted some of the important ones. Start fresh! Get new friends! *lol*īut I keep thinking about it. I get that these friendships were there for us to see how difficult it would be to leave one's home and community, but I honestly didn't care for any of them and at times wanted to shout 'what have you got to lose?' to both Sile and Jude. I did not connect with any of the secondary characters, and these were the parts I happily skimmed over. The story was slow moving and definitely could have been shorter. I had to reflect on this one for a few days before reviewing, My initial thoughts were that this was somewhat bland. The two MCs were interesting and different than other couples I have read about, one young Quaker archivist in a small town in Ontario (yay!) who is set in her luddite ways and not willing/wanting to move, and one 14 years older, a jet setting extroverted air attendant, never wanting to be idle for long. It was a decent read that I blew through in a day or two, mostly because I found myself skimming many a page. A book about two ladies who meet overseas after a surprising incident on a plane, and how their feelings intertwine through the many miles between them.

Landing by Emma Donoghue