The novel covers a life that is rich in incident, but the epistolary format effectively becomes a rather tedious use of the second person as the narrative engine.

I thought the Blitz and Asian sections were good and the overall story was promising.

But not a book I’d recommend.

I was so excited to read this one. It looked so promising!

Upon reading I realised the this novel is written through letters which made it all the more exciting.
I did however, found it difficult not to be annoyed with the protagonist. It is not that I do nto read books with unlikeable characters but I found it hard to understand and justify her confidence making her a bit unrealistic and even more annoying than she was intended to be.

I have to admit I struggled reading this one but I see the talent in the author. I would read more of her works even if this particular novel was not for me.

I received an e-copy of The Reckoning by Clar NI Chonghaile from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

#Thereckoning #clarnichonghaile

I enjoyed the epistolary format of the The Reckoning and learning more about Lina’s life pre and post WWII. It read like a nonfiction memoir instead of a work of historical fiction. Lina was born to parents who lived through and fought in WWI and while her parents hoped there wouldn’t be another Great War. Sadly, Lina and her beau Robert would live through WWII which would set off a chain of events that would change Lina’s life forever.

Who is the Diana that Lina is writing to and what is her reasoning?

I do wish there had been some more plot during her time in Paris, Asia, and Kenya. Although by the end of the book I understood why there wasn’t much plot.

Lina Rose’s life has been defined by war and conflict, from her father's service in WWI, to that of the love of her life and her own in WWII to her own later career as a war correspondent. It’s been a life of change and challenge. Now nearing the end of her life, she is writing a long confessional letter to her daughter Diane, to explain, to justify, to exonerate her own sometimes questionable behaviour and perhaps ultimately to understand and come to terms with her life’s trajectory. It’s a story of love, grief, loss and family and a panoramic portrait of much of the 20th century. I found it readable, indeed enjoyable much of the time, but Lina herself is not a likeable or empathetic character and a whole book of her voice ultimately becomes wearing, and I found the potential emotional power of the novel was thus diminished. This letter maunders on and on and sometimes I just wanted to exclaim “enough already”. The style is unnecessarily wordy and I felt the author was trying just a bit too hard with her metaphors and similes and a tighter, sparer style would have been more effective. A bit of healthy editing certainly wouldn’t have come amiss. Nevertheless, good storytelling and an unpredictable plot kept me reading.

I received a copy of The Reckoning by Clar No Chonghaile from Netgalley and this is my honest review

I enjoyed the story very much. Without giving away anything, it is exactly as described. It is a woman writing a letter to her child in old age explaining why she was not the mother she wanted to be

I loved the idea of the story, but I didn’t love the main character. Which is not a bad thing because we’re not supposed to like everyone in a book, characters are all different and we all have our own preferences right? That being said, I do think she was a little too bi which is not a bad thing because we’re not supposed to like everyone in a book, characters are all different and we all have our own preferences right? That being said, I do think she was a little too wordy, and toward the middle of the book I felt it dragged a little bit. However it did pick up at the end again, and I can say I honestly enjoyed it

Thank you so much for allowing me to read this !

Thankyou to Legend Press and the author, Clar Ni Chonghaile, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of The Reckoning in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.
I was excited to receive a copy of this book as the premise of the story had me intrigued. Unfortunately, the actual book did not deliver. Not a book for me as I struggled to finish it.

Successful author and journalist Lina Rose is in her seventies when she decides to write to her only daughter, Diane. She had given Diane up for adoption when the daughter was around 18 months old. This decision, though, was not made under duress from any third party. Lina did it because she wanted a new life, a different life, a life that couldn’t possibly include a child. Unforgivable, isn’t it? And Diane has not forgiven her.
But as Lina’s life unfolds, through her collection of letters to her daughter, it becomes apparent that judgement is something best left to the gods. A life so scarred by both world wars, as Lina’s was and as many others’ must have been, is not one that can be rightly gauged through a relatively peaceful – if uneasy - 21st century lens. Like the lame excuse proffered after an unfunny punchline, it would seem that “you had to be there”. And one of the many strengths of this astonishing novel is just how accurately Clár Ni Chonghaile recounts the horrors of “being there”, whether in the trenches of the Great War or in Caen during WWII.
There are so many written testaments of the suffering endured by the soldiers ensnared in the thick of both world wars. Not so much has been written about those women left behind to pick up the impossibly smashed pieces. Lina is one of those left behind, and while her husband does return from Caen, he is utterly destroyed. Just as her father returned from the Somme, traumatized into almost complete silence. When even further heartbreak ensues, Lina realizes that if she is to survive at all, she must first surrender her child.
Now an old woman, Lina knows it’s not long until her own day of reckoning and, acutely aware that her daughter has not forgiven her, she feels she must write an explanation. But is it possible to explain a life? With clear-eyed honesty, and many regrets, she traces the sequence of events, big and small, that amounted to her life both before and after her daughter’s adoption. Written with such a skilled, elegant pen and avoiding even the tiniest trace of maudlin sentimentality, this novel is right up there with Testament of Youth and Sophie’s Choice and deserves spectacular success.

The story is about a mother writing a series of letters to her daughter about why she gave her up for adoption. She describes her life and how the first world war affected her parents and how the second world war affected her and her husband. I did enjoy that part of the story very much but she doesn't come across as a likeable person and I found the plot device of the letters annoying and irrelevant to the tale of the devastation of war. I'm not even sure that the fact that she gave up a child for adoption is that necessary to the story and the ending didn't work very well for me. I didn't really care why she was writing the letters at this point. I think it must be hard to write a novel about the past from the present time - I have read a few recently and all the plot devices seem contrived. In summary, I did like it and it has a lot of merit but the beginning and ending are weak.

I enjoyed the style in which this novel is written - relayed through letters - but I really struggled with the protagonist. I am all for a dislikable character, but her confidence was overbearing and gratingly artificial. Unfortunately, it meant I couldn't continue with the book. It was unfortunate, as on paper it looked like an excellent read, but unfortunately it wasn't for me.

I loved the format of this book. It is written as a series of letters from a mother to estranged daughter. I found the letters immediately engaged me as though I was the recipient needing to know more. Generally, I steer clear of books that deal with war but I really thought the way that Clár personalised Lina and her family's experience of both the first and second world wars brought them alive without sensationalism. The narrative, from a woman's perspective, made it difficult to believe that Clár had not lived through this time. The book is full of surprises, information, love, sorrow and generally a life well lived. I thought it was a great read

Set between the years leading up to World War I, all the way into the 90’s, we follow the life of Lina, a 70 something woman who was born shortly after World War I, and survives World War II, along with her parents and fiancé, only to lose him to suicide a couple years later, and her parents in a tragic accident a few months after that. In her grief, she decides the only way to escape it all is to walk away from what remains of her life entirely and start anew. She begins by giving her 14-month-old daughter up for adoption. The book consists of letters she has written to that daughter, explaining all the circumstances that led to her choice, and all the things that happened afterwards.

This is one of those books that started off on the wrong foot for me. The narrator was a bit pretentious, and sometimes it felt as though someone – narrator or author is unclear – was “trying too hard”. However, knowing that first chapters tend to be the roughest, and committed to giving it at least 10% before setting it aside, I continued. Once again, perseverance paid off! Lina did take some getting used to, and I still found her rather irritating from time to time, she eased up and let go of some of that “shell” as she let go of herself and embraced her past. And admittedly, it becomes clear from the start that she gave her young daughter up for adoption, and because of her age (14 months old!), the mother in me was judging her for what felt like abandonment. And in the end, I was reminded of the dangers of judging without context.

Much of the historical fiction I read falls during one of the two World Wars, and that is because it interests me, but also because there is a ton of it out there. But this book isn’t like those books. For one, it goes beyond Europe and America, touching on the involvement of the East, even Africa. Also, Lina becomes a war correspondent and covers the conflicts that came after, taking us through war history in more recent decades. And through it all, we see a really thorough examination of her life, and of the times, in a way I haven't seen in other books written about the same time period. The character development is superb. Lina’s humanity is laid bare, and through this most vulnerable act of exposing herself fully, she reminded me of my own humanity, and the importance of forgiveness and empathy.

If you love historical fiction and/or character driven novels, I simply can’t recommend this book enough.

Clár Ni Chonghaile’s The Reckoning is a fraught, deeply powerful and conflicted emotional rollercoaster; an unflinching portrayal of the war-torn global landscape of the twentieth century. It is a profound mediation on grief, life in a war-zone, post-traumatic stress disorder and the ways in which the horrors of war can adversely and irreparably affect the fabrics of a person’s life.
The Reckoning draws attention to the generations of the population who had to deal with the ricocheting effects of both of the World Wars at the beginning of the century - with both the protagonist’s father and husband being traumatised by the horrors they experience on the battlefield - and both the expected, and the unexpected, consequences that they had on the rest of their lives.
Told in a series of letters, that is evocative of the style of Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (a truly wonderfully-told tale), The Reckoning is horrific, emotional, brave and wonderful all rolled into one.

Lina Rose is writing a letter to the baby she abandoned. Written as a series of letters, Lina traces her family history and how it shaped who she is and who she became.

*sigh*

Lina was just SO unlikeable. She comes off so arrogant and...just selfish. There are glimpses of her tenderness, but they are so brief and overpowered by the darkness inside of her.

Still, the writing is beautiful.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

World War 1 and 2 were some of the hardest times this country and indeed other European countries have endured, yet it was not just the countries that suffered, it was also each individual person wether they fought on the frontline or stayed at home.

Lina Rose was a woman entering her twilight years, we first met her in France as she wrote to the daughter she gave up for adoption in the years following the ending of World War 2. What follows is a poignant, emotional series of thoughts, reasons and justifications for her actions over the intervening years.

I challenge anyone not to be moved by what they read. Lina’s story is one of personal tragedy and turmoil, yet I never felt sorry for her. Chonghaile’s skill was in making Lina pragmatic, and stoical to the point that I had to admire her. Yes, some of the decisions she made were wrong, but who is to say that we would not make the same ones, if we found ourselves in similar circumstances. Lina’s approach seemed to be one of survival, a life that she could live to the full, a life for her child that would be better than the one she could give her. And what a life Lina led, one of travel and danger, as though she was punishing herself for the decisions she had made, but one where she found herself and at times was happy.

Chonghaile’s narrative brilliantly captured the many countries Lina visited, none were more vivid than those in Africa, where you could almost feel the simmering heat and get lost in the descriptions of the beautiful landscape.

What struck me more than anything was the way in which Chonghaile was able to dig deep and really understand the cruel ravishes of war that both Lina’s, father and her love Robert suffered. We can never imagine the untold horrors that they both faced, or the terror they felt that each day but Chonghaile’s skill was that she used her narrative to paint a picture, a picture of the haunted and gaunt look on their faces and the terror in their eyes. I just wished that they had the knowledge that we have today so that they need not have suffered, that their relatives would not have suffered and they could have received help to live their lives to their full potential.

For all its sadness, The Reckoning was also a story of hope, of forgiveness, and love, of a person’s sheer determination to survive despite the odds.

The Reckoning is a haunting story, a lament to the fallen and those who survived, it was a story that held me in its awe and captivated me in the beauty of the writin

This book takes the form of a series of letters from a woman traumatized by WW2 and the personal losses immediately afterwards to her adult daughter that she gave up for adoption. I found this book in the literary fiction category on net galley; it also could have been categorized as historical fiction, although I would perhaps describe it as popular fiction - closer to Danielle Steele than what I was expecting. I was interested in the topic - of the ravages of trauma in the post partum period, and of the daily details of being in London in the war, and of the many political conflicts that the protagonist witnessed as a frontline journalist in later years. But this is where I struggled the most. I felt that this book tried to hit the heavy topics, but it was missing the research, and therefore was very superficial. Post partum depression was not really described, the details of what happened in many conflicts were skimmed over, and the few details that did emerge seemed rushed, and hard to contextualize without more background information. I did not allow myself to google any references while I read this book, and often felt left adrift. I also felt that it fell closer to maudlin than to emotionally impactful, and this frustrated me as I wanted to relate as a mother and as a frontline worker who works in trauma. The twist at the end also had a showy quality to me that, rather than deepening the narrative, just shifted things inexplicably - it didn’t need it. I could not connect with the protagonist and her chirpy tone, and it all rang a bit false for me. Oh also, this description of Her experience in Kenya: “Men, women and children walked in tidy lines on either side of the highway. In the rising sun’s rays, they were faceless, austerely beautiful silhouettes, like the polished ebony statues sold in craft markets”. Just, I mean, no. fear that I was not the intended audience for this book. I think that it would behoove the publisher to advertise this book and describe this book in a way that it has specific appeal to someone looking for a slightly lighter read than I felt was implied by the description.

This epistolary novel is the autobiography of a former journalist and successful novelist, telling her long-lost daughter how the experiences of her immediate ancestors, her friends and relations affected their lives, and hers. It is also the history of a century of great change and global conflict which impacted upon these individuals and families, and on the nations and continents in which they lived.

I wondered from the beginning of the book whether the letter-writer was intentionally giving her daughter some unreliable information - after all, she is a novelist - and, if so, what is the unreliable content? By the end, I was also left wondering how much of her later letters was subjective - perhaps they had been edited by her typist, or even distorted by illness. Readers have to decide for themselves, I guess, and this would make it an ideal book for a discussion group.

"The Reckoning" is a sad history, beautifully written with no redundant words and many beautiful phrases. I believe it will stand the test of time.

With thanks to the publishers and to Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for this honest review.

I am always eager to read more from the literary fiction genre and thought this sounded like a novel I would enjoy and appreciate. However, there was a lot of aspects of the plot and characters that annoyed me somewhat. I feel that with such an emotional story the main character should be one a reader at most likes, or at worst can relate to, but, here, Lina Rose is highly unlikable. Arrogant, boastful and a very selfish sounding woman, it is difficult to enjoy the subtle nuances of this novel because of her.

Not only that but the writing style was so staccato that I had a problem getting into the whole book. However, I did think that the structure was an inspired move by the author - told in the form of letters that Lina writes to her daughter, Diane, who she abandoned as a baby. Although there are some beautifully tender moments where Lina opens her heart to us, there are still instances where she said or did things that I felt were not believable in the situation. She writes of her regret at not having kept her daughter close and attempts to explain and justify the reasons behind her decision.

A moving story about forgiveness and regrets. I enjoyed the format of being written as a series of letters.

Although I’m always excited to discover new authors, this wasn’t for me! I couldn’t get past the dry, short-sentenced, sometimes patronizing “Whatever you might think of me as your mother, you cannot deny my talent,” and occasionally blasé writing style “The rest, as they say, is history.” If this was done intentionally, to make the main character, Lina Rose, unlikable to the reader, then it succeeded.

Clár Ní Chonghaile’s book involves a family affected by both world wars, with the two generations of men, both Lina’s father and her husband, traumatized by their horrors, and I found this parallel intriguing. The plot isn’t bad, I’ve seen this literary device done before: in Graham Swift’s “Tomorrow,” Kathleen Rooney’s “Lillian Boxfish Tales a Walk,” for example.

Even though I loved the premise of this novel, I can’t ignore the fact that I didn’t enjoy the way the story was delivered. It is told in letters, or rather installments - as Lina compares herself with the likes of Dickens (“modesty has never been my strongest quality”) -, written to her daughter, Diane, whom she had left when she was a baby. Lina is trying to explain why she made that decision, but stumbles way too often into self-praise or digressions, such as “why reading fiction is escapism” and how “writers are the real gods.”

If you are looking for a book that portrays an enigmatic successful woman, this is a decent pick.

*Thanks to NetGalley & Legend Press for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I just could not get into this book.. read the first 100 pages or so and the story just was not gripping. Theres nothing I enjoy more than a good book, finding a new author and looking forward to their next book. Sorry to say, this did not meet the mark..