"Interpretations of Love" is a novel that will stay with you long after the last page. Jane Campbell's prose is beautiful, and full of emotion. The way she portrays the lasting effects of a single tragedy on a family across generations is poignant and thought-provoking. We see how past hurts can shape the lives and relationships of those involved for the reminder of their lives.

Even though the writing is beautiful, it is also a bit heavy. This is not a quick read. The novel is a slow burn, and the lack of dialogue can make it a slog at times. The characters are very introspective and the reader has a true understanding of their feelings. They are not very relatable, however. There is no casual conversation or moments of joy in the book. The writing is very formal, and this makes the characters feel aloof.

In the end I would say that "Interpretations of Love" is a double-edged sword. It's a beautifully written story about how different people interpret a tragedy and how they express their love, but it is at times difficult to get past the heavy elaborate prose.

This was an interesting read on love and family. There was a lot of characters to keep up with but each had their own POV to tell their story. This book is very different and has some beautiful hidden messages,.

I would recommend this book to the right audience.

I appreciate that I’ve received this ARC from NetGalley and I also appreciate the author for debuting a book for us readers to possibly enjoy. I am not a writer and I can’t even imagine the time and sacrifice a writer makes to publish a book that they put their heart and soul to. I’ve attempted to finish this book because this was my first ARC book. I was excited and ready to get lost in my own little world of reading haven.

The first few pages, I immediately felt like I was lost. I didn’t understand which character was telling the story. I thought it maybe just me being distracted so I had to go back and read the pages prior. I told myself, “buckle down and pay attention!” More pages go by and I was still lost. That’s when I started realizing the dialogue and the lack of character development was the issue causing me to be distracted. So much that I’ve think about what I’ll cook dinner, what’s my week’s schedule like, who’s texted me, or if I should browse social media instead. Not a good start when your mind starts to wonder off from reading.

I tried to read roughly 40 more pages and that’s when I finally had to tell myself “who are you kidding-you’re not going to want to finish this book.” Guilt and relief was the emotions I’ve felt. In the end, I had to forgive myself for the guilt of sending this book on the DNF library but I’m proud of myself for trying.

An impressive debut novel by an author whose first collection of stories was published to rave reviews in 2022, when the author was 80!! The book brings readers to a seaside town in England, where a family gathers and a long-held and significant secret is eventually unfurled. Absolutely beautiful --

Thank you to Jane Campbell, Grove Pressband Netgalley for the ARC.

This is a story about tragedy, loss, and getting through life, despite everything, but with love. And how love can get in our lives in so many diferent ways. And how we can spend our life searching for something, finding it here and there in easy passion, but how it never lasts because there's something missing. And only when we're able to stop and be real with ourselves we can know how we're fooling ourselves. And what do you do when you know what you're missing... but can't have it?

I really judged this book by it's cover and it teuly surprised me for the best.

This book is written in a very intimate poetic way. It really was astounding to me how well it captured the thought process of diferent characters. Maybe because I'm a psychologist missing I really really enjoied this book abd struggle to know that if I searched the book reviews before I could be discouraged to get into it and would be missing such a beautiful narrative that filled my soul while I was getting through it!

At the beginning, this book sets up what could be an interesting conflict. A withheld secret crucial to two of the primary characters.. It had great potential that never materialized. Instead we get pages and pages of interior conversations, rumination, endless description and awkward interaction centered on a series of unlikeable characters.

The story begins with two siblings, Malcolm and Sophe. She is married and has a five year old child, Agnes. Malcolm is a young university student. Sophe and her husband, Kurt, are going away together for a holiday and are leaving their daughter, Agnes in the care of Malcolm and their parents. Before she leaves, Sophe presses a letter into Malcolm’s hand and makes him promise that he will see it delivered. He promises.

Sophe and Kurt are in a fatal car accident. Kurt dies at the scene but Sophe briefly survives and again makes Malcolm promise he’ll deliver the letter. He promises again.

But Malcolm does not deliver the letter. He reads it and knows what is in it is important, particularly now that Agnes has lost her parents. It is a letter to a man Sophe had a brief love affair with during the war whom she thinks may be her daughter’s biological father. Malcolm, without malice but paralyzed with indecision, defies Sophie's wishes and puts the letter in a drawer.

Pow. The potential for a good story fizzles. While the reader may be waiting for some action to explode, it never does. The characters are too polite. Instead, what does materialize is a series of convoluted relationships one of which is the potential father becoming Agnes’ therapist.

Real conflict or character development never emerges, It is hard to care about any of them and nothing interesting ever happens and it is overwritten with pages of unnecessary description.

The author may have intended this to be a philosophical musing on love and loss but it didn't hold my interest. I think there may be a narrow audience for this kind of book but I cannot be included among them.

Thank you for Netgalley and Grove Press for the opportunity to read and honestly review this advanced reading copy.
See other reviews on www.jantramontano.com/readerscafe

The book is mainly centered around a few characters in one family. When Malcolm's sister dies leaving a letter containing a war time family secret, he waits half a century to divulge it's mysterious contents to his niece.

Quite wordy prose at times. An excellent premise however,

Interpretations of Love begins its story the night before a wedding. Malcolm, the eighty year old uncle, leads off the introduction to the rest of the characters.

Shortly after WWII, Malcolm’s older sister and her husband are involved in a car accident. Just before she passes away, she gives him a letter in which she describes a one-night stand she had during the war. She names the man who may be the father of her 4 yr old daughter and gives instructions to Malcolm to give the letter to him. But Malcolm sits on this letter for 50 years and then gives it to his niece at her daughter’s wedding.

This was a gentle read but I found myself skimming it because there were a lot of superfluous words. Some parts were long and drawn out. There were many beautiful sentences and paragraphs throughout this book but unfortunately not enough to redeem it for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jane Campbell and Grove Press for my eARC.

I found this book very interesting in parts, and there were definitely moments where the words just sat with me. However, the narrative style often took me out of the novel and a few times where I had put the book down and come back to it, I struggled to remember whose POV I was in. I do appreciate the different style of writing, but it just didn't always gel with my style of reading.

Thank you NetGalley for thr ARC of this one.

A marriage ceremony, many characters, their secrets and individual stories reflecting upon the choices of romance are the main theme of this novel. It is an intimate celebration of love.

Interpretations of Love by Jane Campbell is based on the themes of reflecting upon choices and giving second chances to the relationships. The book began well enough with a first person point of view which had my interest for some time. While using this prompt by a variety of different characters in the novel made this a bit difficult for me to gradually.

It could have been an interesting read as there is a wedding and meeting of the family is one of my favorite tropes in stories. But, I found this very trope tiring just as I felt it was overwritten at times. Maybe the multiple POV made the book a little disorganized, otherwise the book treats the theme of analysis of love at various stages of life beautifully.


Thank you @netgalley for this ARC


#interpretationsoflove #janecampbell #netgalley #netgalleyarc #historicalfiction

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, however I did not have the opportunity to finish it. To be honest, I am not entirely sure what this book is about. The beginning that I did read jumped from person to person and through different life events. I just did not connect with it at all and could not finish it. Thank you.

Interpetations of love is a beautifully written book about reflection, redemption and second chances. The characters are written with depth and with empathy. Writing from the first person point of view of the major characters is especially effective. This book, while appealing to all, will be especially meaningful to those doing a life review. It brought me to tears on several occasions due to it's poignancy. I highly recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing a copy of this book with me in return for my honest review.
While there were some interesting parts, I didn’t find that the storyline was strong enough to hold my attention. I had to look back a couple of times to see whose point of view the chapter was being written from. Unfortunately this is not one that I would recommend.

I don’t typically base reviews on format, knowing that this is a draft and will be revised, but I struggled with the structure of this book in kindle format. Things may be clearer in the printed version, but I also found the voice, and general demeanor of the characters off-putting.
Historical fiction, specifically of this time period and location, are a favorite of mine, and I do think the author did a wonderful job transporting readers. Jane Campbell is obviously a talented writer, the structure and these particular characters just weren’t a fit for me.

Interpretations of love is a novel that describes how tragedy at a young age can affect the life of a person until the end. How we cope with life’s circumstances and the understanding of how it can affect others is important in order to survive it in peace and hopefully happiness if there is one.

3.5. Centered on just a few characters, this book explores love and family and what each means to them. Malcolm is given a letter by his sister before she dies which in it describes a one-night stand during wartime that she had and who may very well be the father of her child. Malcolm sits on this letter for 50 years and then gives it to his niece.

There were many beautiful poetic sentences and paragraphs throughout this novel. But, the paragraphs were, at times, just simply too long. It wasn’t broken out into dialogue and full pages of just one paragraph made this more difficult for me to enjoy and I found myself just skim reading some of them unfortunately. Also since some of the characters were psychiatrists there was much talk of self-analyzing which was a bit too long and drawn out.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jane Campbell and Grove Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

It was before I read the author biog that I felt an old-fashionedness arising from the pages of the novel. That and a sense of the British class system dominating the characters. Perhaps the two elements are intertwined. Certainly this is a sensitive, penetrating and sometimes moving account of love, loss and family interaction. It expresses a radiant belief in love, indeed an idealized sense of this and other matters (gardens, Cotswold manor houses). And yet it seems to belong to another era and never quite shakes off that revivified mood. Not a book for a wide or modern readership, I would imagine, but in its own terms thoughtful and lapidary.

An interesting and unusual debut novel , told from several points of view and full of soul searching internal monologues.
Given that the author is fast approaching 80, it is understandable that this novel takes the long view of its characters' lives , and given Jane Campbell's academic background, it is unsurprising that much of her erudition and psychoanalytic knowledge is to be found in her writing.
The story, at its simplest, revolves around a single act and a single letter, and the ramifications of, and effects on, the main characters of both.
There is much self analysis and no little regret and even guilt, within the cast of characters and, since each is given a part of the story to tell, it is interesting to see how differently the revelations are dealt with and how separate the characters are within their own thoughts, even though, to the outside world they may seem interconnected.
Some of the prose in the novel is truly lovely, and at times positively lyrical, but all that being said, the book retains such a sense of melancholy and opportunities irreparably lost that it is very difficult to say that one " enjoyed" it.
I would take great care before recommending it as I think it might well be an acquired taste.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Grove Atlantic for this opportunity to read and review the novel

A really gentle, considered, quiet story.

Malcolm collects his niece Agnes, just before her parents are killed in a traffic accident. His sister with her last breath confirms he has delivered a letter for her. He has not.
We follow the extended family as they explore what love is and how it affects their decision, with this undelivered letter centrepiece in the story.

I loved the premise and the story, but felt even at the end I was only just started with the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

This is a gentle and scholarly book. It starts with Malcolm collecting his niece, just before her parents are killed in an accident. He has a letter that he has been asked to deliver, but for valid reasons he doesn’t until 50 years later.. This book explores different types of love, bereavement especially at a young age and the myriad of things that contribute to our priorities in life. Some readers may find it a bit preachy as the characters self analyse themselves and their feelings, however the beautiful writing and generous and so very human characters make up for that in my mind. It is the sort of book that makes you sit and ponder, would you have done the things they did, especially in relation to the letter. The aftermath of the fallout from the contents of the letter was handled very well. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC to read and offer an honest review of.