Heartbreak and transformation in the beauty of a Ukrainian village For seven-year old Angela, happiness is exploring the lush countryside around her home in western Ukraine. Her wild imagination takes her into birds and flowers, and into the waters of the river.All that changes when, one morning, she sees her mother crying. As she tries to find out why, she is drawn on an extraordinary journey … drawn on an extraordinary journey into the secrets of her family, and her mother’s fateful choices.
Can Angela lead her mother back to happiness before her innocence is destroyed by the shadows of a dark past?
Beautiful, poetic and richly sensory, this is a tale that will haunt and lift its readers.
“A strange and beautiful novel” – Esther Freud, author of Mr Mac and Me, Hideous Kinky, Peeless Flats
“Readers looking for a classic tale of love and loss will be rewarded with an intoxicating world” – Kirkus Reviews
“Rich and poetic in detail, it is an often dreamy, oneiric narrative rooted in an exaltation of nature… A lovely novel” – IndieReader
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Angela is but a child but with a special spiritual bond with nature, especially birds and flowers. Most of the story is seen through her young eyes. Angela wants more than anything to help her mother who is suffering severe depression, which she is attempting to battle through using alcohol. Everything bit of sunshine Angela throws toward her mother, Lyuda, is but a temporary fix. Lyuda must find the strength to climb up out of the darkness.
The story is well-written and contains hauntingly beautiful imagery. Though Lyuda finds beauty in her daughter she struggles to find any within herself. A somewhat dark, but enchanting tale.
A beautifully poetic story where reality and imagination fuses until you’re not sure which is which anymore. A mother is suffering, her young daughter is trying to understand and help. Sometimes the story becomes a little lost in the spiralling, dream-like quality of the prose, but the characters – especially Angela – are a delight to spend time with.
This was such a beautiful, poetic story. Although it’s set in Ukraine, the story is a universal one. It tells about the pain, the lost hope, of bad choices and their consequences that are perpetuated to future generations. You see the story unravel though the eyes and fanciful musings of a seven-year-old girl, Angela: she is one with the earth; she is a bird; she is the air; she is the river. She has a hard task set before her in order to break the chain (rope) of pain before she herself follows the footsteps of those before her.
This quote from the book reveals one theme throughout the story: “We see the girl, whose spirit is a woven bridge reaching across these dreams. She is young enough to move wherever her will desires, but soon her mind will begin to close the doorways one by one and her own dream will narrow until there remains just one solitary tunnel, the possibilities lit by the belief of a single choice, a single strand of existence.”
I’ve done a bit of research about Eastern European folklore, and I could see the folkloric beliefs seamlessly woven into the story: ancestors, stars, water spirits, the cycle of life and death. You immediately get a sense of what nature means to those who live off the land. The “black earth” is important; it is nurturing and as much a living creature as the people themselves.
It’s a sad tale, but one with the hope of change.
My favorite line in the story, though, is one that made me laugh. To understand it, you’ll have to read the story: “One kiss,” he growls. “One kiss and I have to repair her whole house.”
This is my first book by this author, I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I look forward to reading more from this author. This is a well written story that has characters that brought the story to life for me. I had no problems connecting with the characters. They took me on an emotional roller coaster ride of emotions. This is a fast paced story that is engaging and kept me turning pages fast. This is a story about secrets and consequences for choices we make. I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. It made a great rainy morning read.
Unusual Fiction
This is, perhaps, one of the more unusual books I have read. It comes across as having an almost dreamlike, Impressionistic quality. It is told from the perspective at first of a very young child, who is an unreliable, though fascinating, narrator. Many scenes did not feel like true scenes to me, more like the imaginings of the young girl. As such, I did find it a little hard to get into and follow due to the somewhat floaty, nebulous quality to it. However, it is an interesting, if somewhat confusing, literary exercise.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
Good story with characters that have issues to work through. Interesting and entertaining characters tell a good story. Haunting and complex story of relationships. Good read.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I voluntarily reviewed an arc of this book.
This is my first book by this author and it’s definitely not what I was expecting. It is well-written with beautiful descriptive passages unfortunately it didn’t capture my attention. I really battled to get into the story and relate to any of the characters.
This review contains spoilers * * *
First, I have to say that while this writer is thoroughly descriptive I felt as though the story was often lost beneath the lengthy descriptions. The first 60 pages or so were especially tiring, and, at times, confusing. One of the main characters, a little girl named Angela, toggles between being a little girl, a bird, the elements. Her father abandons Angela and her mother, Lyuda, while Angela was a baby. The story jumps between Angela’s perspectives as both a bird and a girl, her mother’s perspectives, her grandmother’s, as well as spirits and her mother – as a bird, and her father’s. Unfortunately, the delivery of the story involved so much jumping around that I often had to set the book aside and come back to it later.
The story plays out as differing possible paths that Lyuda or Volyodiya (Angela’s father) could’ve chosen are explored. Lyuda is drowning in depression and I think that could’ve been portrayed in a less…. sporadic manner by telling the story through the perspective of Lyuda and Angela.
When someone is depressed they will often wallow in the “what ifs”. Introspection will often bring to light how or what should’ve been done differently, as well as the outcomes of such. This story seemed to be about a mother drowning in self doubt and self pity. The grandmother (who had been dead for several years) as a nature spirit of sorts convinces Angela that SHE herself must save her mother. Which is a heavy and horrible burden to place upon a child. The pain in which mother is drowning becomes the darkness that begins to dim the light of the child. It seems Lyuda witnessed unhappiness in her own mother’s life and is now repeating the cycle, while also drinking to numb her pain.
The pain felt throughout the generations was explained so succinctly that you feel it yourself throughout each page.
Disclaimer: I received a free ARC of this book and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
An intriguing story that weaves both heartbreaking loss and love neatly together. The story revolves around Angela and her mother Lyuda as the narrative switches between the two of them. Angela is a free spirit and is able to slip into things, like birds or flowers, and experience life through them. Lyuda is living in a world of darkness and despair, wishing that things were different and it’s slowly consuming her. Angela, guided by the spirit of her grandmother, sets out to heal her mother. The story grows more complex and intricate as time, memories, and the family flows and ebbs like a river of heredity as their lives and spirits fight to stave off the darkness, but will it be enough? Grab a copy and find out for yourself. I highly recommend this one!
I’ve read Miss Meriel’s other work which got me excited to see what this one was about. She does not disappoint. Like her other book, we are taken on a strange, thought-provoking journey. Though this time, instead of pondering the wonderings of the universe, we are left to think about ourselves and the way that our lives impact one another.
This story really explores the importance of family, particularly that of mother to daughter. This story covered three generations of women in one family and that touched me. Being raised by my mother and grandmother helped me to really relate to the plot of this story and what all three of the women really felt about one another.
Angela was a very sweet character, and it was so easy to read about her. Her parts of the story were moving and so were her desires to brighten the world around her, even when things weren’t so bright. I related to her almost instantly and loved how much she was willing to do just to make her mother smile.
If you’re looking for a cozy read that’ll tug at your heartstrings, this is it.
This is a very emotional story. It’s about mothers and daughter and love and loss. How the world can be hard and beautiful by turns. You’re quickly pulled in even before you know anything about the characters. The writing demands the empathy of the reader. At times its visceral and magical and somehow manages to be both heart rending and uplifting at the same time.
It’s a beautiful book with really powerful writing.
What a tale!
I read it word-by-word, relishing every phrase. Like a dream, of which I wouldn’t want to wake up. The writer’ voice is so poetic, like a song of an invisible bird. Magical in its impress on the reader (me).
“I am open now, a young girl, my spirit catches the joy and the sadness of every moment.” Or, “There is happiness around . . . It is in every flower. It is in every breath.” How beautiful! At moments, I had to stop reading, to wait for my heart slow down.
There is so much in this book: travel into an utterly unhappy world where anger meets with equal sadness; the mourning of the gone dreams and abandoned love; the unfulfilled promises; the unbearable suffering of the child who is convinced all the sadness of the grownups are caused by her and still acting with unbreakable spirit; blissfulness of nature; the struggle of light against darkness.
There is that Slavic fantasy, the faculty of imagining impossible in a tale; a deep philosophical sense; breath-taking moments (the love scene by Lyuda and Volodiya is brilliant in its pureness; “My life was wrong” by Lyuda as a fact for generations of women in her country, Ukraine, just to mention a few).
I couldn’t image retelling the story—it is so ephemeral like a daydream is still with you through sensations and fading images, but you have only the eluding impression and the feeling of wanting to go back to what you’ve just experienced.
Amazing read.
Does a child have to carry the burdens of the parents’ choices? Does a child have to take on the pain that a parent can not let go of? Can a child free a parent of the pain and burdens they have kept as a part of their identity?
Those aforementioned questions came to mind as I read The Woman Behind the Waterfall by Leonora Meriel. Meriel tells the story of Angela, a seven-year-old Ukrainian girl who comes upon her mother crying uncontrollably at the beginning of the novel. She learns that her mother is carrying the wounds of the past and can not let go of them. Angela wants to help her mother release those wounds and find happiness again. The child learns that she has a connection to her grandmother who appears underneath a waterfall by a local river.
Angela realizes from her grandmother that the mother could be trapped by the past forever if she does not show her the way out from that pain. The child has a connection to a spirit that assists her in getting the mother to see she has something living for despite what has happened in her life.
Meriel’s ethereal and subtle prose reminded me of another novel, The Messenger by K.M. Tremills, I reviewed. The prose was layered and poignant like the aforementioned novel. And I believe would reveal more of itself upon a re-read. If you are looking for a book to escape into for a few days, then The Woman Behind the Waterfall is an excellent choice. Recommended.
I received a copy of the novel from the author in exchange for this review.
This was such an interesting and beautifully written book. It’s not the sort of thing you can breeze though. You have to be in a state of mind to immerse yourself in Angela and her mother’s world. The story is about a mother-daughter relationship and how they view themselves, and life in general. The mom, Lyuda, is still stuck in her past a lot and the relationship she lost. Angela comes to find out that although her mom is depressed, her mom is glad that she is in her life. I liked that Angela traveled to the spirit realm and spoke with her grandmother there. The book was very poetic and beautifully written. A great, haunting story of the love between mother and daughter.
This book was so interesting, magical and realistic at the same time. It is about a strong connection between three generations of women in the same family, in a small Ukrainian village .
It is the story of their bond, which is so tight that even in death they are able to communicate to help each other through thought and dream, to keep their family unit from disintegrating.
At times I was a little lost in the story, where I think she (the author) was showing us what some of the different outcomes could be for the mother(Lyuda) and daughter (Angela).
The descriptions of the garden, the countryside and the village are wonderful, the author has a very lyrical and fanciful way of writing.
Angela, is always happy and seeing the best of life, she has the ability to become other things, a bird, a flower, the river and see and enjoy their point of view.
Lyuda , the mother because of certain circumstances in the story, has become depressed and sad, she is stuck in her past yet trying to be there for Angela.
The Grandmother, who is no longer alive has the gift of love which she tries to communicate to her daughter and Angela, and to help them to break a negative thread which is keeping Lyuda in her past memories.
Here is a wonderful piece from the book where the river is saying:
“Throw me your past, throw me your memories. Throw me your sorrows and I will carry them away. My waters are always clear. Whatever is given to me, I release. If you hold on to the memories of what you were, you will never become something that you are not.”
I am not really sure I have given this book a fair review as I find it a bit hard to describe, yet I can say it is well worth reading, so that you can make up your own minds, it is definitely quite a fascinating journey.
I would like to thank NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the ARC of this book.