Love. Hope. Life. Family. Purpose.

If you loved Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens or Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton then pop this gem on your must read list.

#TheOtherHalfOfAugustaHope #NetGalley

Augusta Hope is a unique character. Born the second twin, after midnight so she and her twin have birthdays in different months, named for said month is a logophile, a lover of words. She fills her mind with big and small words and has a penchant for Latin and Spanish. She thinks Burundi is the best named country, wants to go to Spain, is kind to the boy next door who is developmentally challenged, questions everything and exasperates her parents. Her home is her twin sister, her polar opposite in many ways.
Parfait is on of nine siblings living in Burundi. He is hopeful, a dreamer and tenacious. He suffers much loss in his young life but doesn’t allow it to scare him from his dream of escape.

Much of this is told from Augusta’s point of view as an adult, writing about her youth. Intertwined with her memories is brief insight into Parfait’s tumultuous life.
This book takes a bit to get going but around the 20-20% mark hit hits with an emotional oomph that keeps you reading these tales of love, loss and tragedy.
This is a book that you find yourself thinking about days after you read it.

“‘So where is all that time, Augusta?’ he said. ‘Perhaps we’ll find it in heaven,’ I said, which was a surprising thing to say, and came out of my mouth without me thinking about it. ‘Or would it be hell?’ said Mr Sánchez. ‘If you found the past, all piled up by the side of the road. All the things you’d ever said. All the things you’d ever thought. All the things you’d ever done.’”

The Other Half of Augusta Hope is the first novel by British author and teacher of Spanish, Joanna Glen. In the beginning, the other half of Augusta Hope is, of course, her (by minutes) older twin sister, Julia. For twin sisters, they are very different, in appearance and character. “Julia, fair, quiet and contained, happy inside herself, inside the house, humming; and me, quite the opposite, straining to leave, dark, outspoken, walking in the wind, railing.”

Still, they are each other’s home, much more than the house at Number One Willow Crescent, Hedley Green. “You feel her tears before they fall – and you want to stop them, you so want to stop them, though you can’t, that’s the truth of it. You hear her laugh before it comes, and hearing her laugh makes you laugh too. Her lovely bright laugh. In this way, your twin is your home.”

But something in that lifelong connection breaks after a certain vacation morning in La Higuera, Spain. For a long time, Augusta just doesn’t know why. To Augusta, La Higuera feels more like home than Hedley Green, but it's where the sparkle disappeared from Julia’s eyes.

Meanwhile, in Burundi, the never-ending violence and bloodshed and political upheaval has Parfait Nduwimana deciding that he will seek peace in Spain. His devoted younger brother, Zion does not hesitate to accompany him. Their plan is to walk to Tangiers, then borrow a boat to cross to what they are convinced will be paradise.

With these twin narratives, Glen tells a story of two people whose need to escape eventually sees their paths cross, if ever so fleetingly at first. Glen’s characters are no stereotypes: they have depth and develop as they deal with life’s challenges. Young Augusta, precocious, fascinated with words and language, and given to unfiltered comments on life, is quirky and funny; adult Augusta, sometimes a bit prickly and insensitive, is not instantly appealing, but by the conclusion, is likely to have grown on the reader.

Although the story progresses over some two decades from the nineties, with their attitudes and mindset, Stanley and Jilly Hope seem to be firmly stuck in the sixties. But Augusta wonders “isn’t it the job of mothers and fathers to love first, and to love equally, and to love better than their children? Or was I supposed to help them love me by being what they wanted me to be?” She realises for that she would need to be Julia.

Glen’s prose is often exquisite: “Burundi Burundi Burundi. I said it so many times it stopped meaning anything. It was like the sea lapping against my mind” and “the hat-man with the ponytail moved to a stool over in the corner, and he closed his eyes, and he opened his mouth, and he started to sing, and his voice split up into strands, fraying, as if there was blood on his vocal cords, or in his heart. The man in the vest picked up his guitar, which turned out, indeed, to be a living thing, and a woman appeared from behind the curtain of a doorway, with a black shawl around her shoulders, holding her skirt. She started to dance” are examples.

She gives her characters words of wisdom: “the people we like, and might even love, will still disappoint us – in the same way, I suppose, as we disappoint them” and insightful observations: “Our grieving was an exchange of cakes through the winter because sometimes the only things you can do in response to big things are small things”, also “‘It’s weird the way we keep our brains in our pockets now,’ I said. ‘Do you think our brains will gradually evolve to hold less and less information? And soon we’ll be Neanderthals again but with iPhones?’”

The plight of refugees, Spanish poetry, a hundred-year-old gypsy caravan, painted tin daffodils, and evocative art feature in this tale. Death and disability, resulting in copious grief and guilt and heartache, lends a rather dark and sad aspect to the middle of the story, but the uplifting ending is truly wonderful: hopeful and heart-warming.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley, Harper Collins Australia and The Borough Press. The erratic formatting in the kindle version of this review copy will doubtless have been corrected in the final version and does not really affect the reading experience.

This is the story of a young woman called Augusta Hope who first loses and then finds her other half. Born a twin, Augusta feels she doesn't fit in to the small town in England where her family are happy to live and dreams of escaping to more exotic places. She loves words and reading and asks too many questions. Even her parents think she is weird and wonder why she can't be more normal like her twin Julia, who is her only friend and supporter.

On the other side of the world, a young boy called Parfait is growing up amongst civil war and poverty and dreaming of a better life for himself and his family. Augusta and Parfait will both suffer unimaginable tragedies as they search for a place to be themselves and finally call home.

This was a gorgeous book, very beautifully written with Parfait's alternating narratives mirroring Augusta's. At times humorous, this is not a light hearted read as it deals with some serious issues, but it will definitely pull at your heart strings as these two young people struggle to find their place in our modern world.

I really enjoyed this book! I think the plot was very comprehensive, and the characterization deep. I especially liked the way the writing was evocative and helped you feel and think the same way the characters did! - All in all an excellent book, everyone should read it!