The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson, 394 pages20-10 challenge: Never heard of the author before (although she is also known as Jude Fisher)
Lots of ways to describe this book - mystery, historical, pirates, suspense, and a bit of romance thrown it. A real-life book lover friend came gushing in to work with this book, and those type of recommendations have to be taken seriously.
Two parallel stories, surrounding an embroidery book. In 17th century England, Cat, a young woman dissatisfied with her future of marriage, gets more than she bargained for when pirates from Morocco attack her Cornwall village. Four hundred years later, Julie discovers the same book with Cat's notes in it in the midst of a painful breakup. Julie tries to unravel the mystery of the book, as their lives l
follow some unusual parallels.
I eventually understood the significance of the title, but I thought it took too long! I think there must be a better title for this book, but I'm not sure what it would be. There were small incredulous events, but I let go and just enjoyed the great combination of mystery, and suspense and storytelling. I enjoyed my time in Cornwall, and especially Morocco, and the connection of the embroidery was very nice. Nothing too heavy or heaving, with strong women leads from both centuries.
Sounds kinda interesting. I haved put this on my TBR list.
ReplyDeleteMy friend just loved it.
ReplyDeleteI tried to leave a comment on your blog at the It's Tuesday post, but I couldn't. Not sure if the problem is on your end or mine.
Hi, I recently read the book, and I just need to clarify what the title of the book means.
ReplyDelete*SPOILER*
was cat's book in fact the tenth gift (which was supposed to be a book in the african song) which Julia "brought with her" from marocco? I know that this is most likely, but I couldn't understand that until the very end of the book (and maybe that was intented) and that made me feel a bit uncertain. Because she (the author) didn't focus on the rest of the gifts, except for the three first, and that sort of made it a bit unclear that the title had something to do with the song.
I'd like to hear your thoughts :) and I read a translated version, so that may have been the reason for my uncertainty.
linnea - that's what I thought, the book was the tenth gift. I thought she waited too long to explain the significance, which lessened the impact a bit. I was a bit confused as well.
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