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Saturday, March 24, 2018

Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor

Despite a lengthy driving vacation that included absolutely no reading in the car, I managed to get some reading accomplished, and this is one of the books.  It was long listed for the Booker Prize and while it was not the winner, it was a very good read.
The thing to love about this book is not so much the story but the telling of it (as is really so often the case with the Booker Prize long list).  It opens with a young girl gone missing, but the book isn't really about that so much as the ripple effect that such a thing has across a community.  The tighter knit the community the greater the effect.  Tragedy is the one thing that is easier to overcome collectively if we in fact don't much care for each other.  This book is incredibly subtle in the way that the loss of this child hits each and every character in the book in an ongoing way, regardless of their connection to the girl herself.  It is beautifully written, easy to read, and will be a little haunting in the days that follow finishing it, something coming up in the back of your mind in a very good way.

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