Reviewer: Liza Perrat, author of Spirit of Lost Angels and Wolfsangel
What we thought: A Funeral for an Owl is a multi-layered story that hooks you from the beginning, and which you don’t want to end.
The author gradually develops the four main characters––Jim, Ayisha, Aimee and Shamayal––to reveal well-crafted detail of each of their lives.
We first meet Jim in the present day, as a school teacher who is stabbed whilst trying to break up a schoolyard fight. Jim watches out, and risks his job, for Shamayal, a pupil who has a difficult home life. And another teacher, Ayisha––a stickler for the rules that say teachers cannot be friends with students––becomes caught up in the situation and must question her own moral standards.
The story then jumps back to the eleven-year old Jim, who is living in similar conditions to Shamayal, and we learn how Jim battles to better himself and his life, and about how his relationship with Aimee affects his future.
The story slipping between the past and the present, the language and descriptions are stunning, the characters come alive on the page and the storyline holds the reader’s interest right till the end.
A Funeral for an Owl is beautifully written, as are this author’s other books that I’ve had the pleasure to read, and I would highly recommend it for lovers of literary fiction.
You’ll enjoy this if you like: stunningly-written and cleverly-crafted, character-driven page-turners
Avoid if you don’t like: emotionally-charged stories
Ideal accompaniments: cup of tea, fish ‘n chips wrapped in newspaper
Genre: Literary Fiction
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