New Cross Library Reading Group News

The April meeting of the group discussed Katherine Webb’s novel The Legacy.

This novel, which appealed to those who attended the session, has an intriguing plot linking characters spanning five generations from both sides of the Atlantic. As Erica and Beth who are sisters living in present day society, with mixed feelings take up residence in Storton Hall, a country house left to them under quite repressive terms by their aloof and recently deceased grandmother, we soon become involved in the plot which revolves around Erica’s  attempts to unravel the mysteries concerning both the distant past and an event from their own childhood – the sudden and as yet unexplained disappearance of Henry, their objectionable and outrageous cousin.

We were impressed at how deftly the author juxtaposes her accounts of events which occurred in different periods, so that Caroline, seen by Erica and Beth as a remote and almost otherworldly figure from another epoch, is vividly drawn when we meet her as a young, sensitive and idealistic woman who escapes the luxurious, yet oppressive home she shares with her overbearing guardian in New York, only to find herself in an equally forbidding environment in the American West, where vast expanses of land seem to separate each dwelling place, where sand blows into everything and her husband seems ceaselessly occupied with work. Which experiences, however tragic, cause Caroline to lose her zest for living as withdrawn and embittered she spends her succeeding years as a recluse at Storton Hall? It appears that ancient letters and photographs found by Erica at this country residence by may provide clues as dos her reunion with Dinny, a childhood friend who lives as he did in the past with a community of travellers in the grounds of Storton Hall.

We were also interested to see that Katherine Webb found encouragement from individuals she encountered on a creative writing website youwriteon.com and look forward to her next novel which has recently appeared.

Next month’s meeting will discuss Maggie O’Farrell’s novel The Distance Between Us.
Tuesday 3 May 2011, 6.30-7.30pm
New Cross Library

Have you read this book? Let us know your thoughts.