November 30, 2021
Ballantine Books
Random House
Women’s fiction, fiction, arc, publisher invite, NetGalley
336 pages
ISBN:9781984818416
1/20/22-2/8/22
KATHLEEN QUINLAN
Senior Marketing Manager | Random House Publishing
kquinlan@penguinrandomhouse.com | 212.782.9122
It was March 13, 2020 where Diana O’Toole was working her dream job at Sotheby’s in NY. Her life plan with Finn seemed to be falling into place as expected. That is, until the unexpected happened. Diana had been working hard to appease her boss Eva by commissioning a sought after piece of art. It was part of a painted series by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1890 called Le Lit which features prostitutes in bed quiet intimacy. The seller Kotomi Ito remarks that “what you see is not what you’re really seeing”. She is conflicted about selling this controversial piece of art once valued by her husband Sam Pride who was murdered.
Meanwhile, Diana is readying herself for a long deserved vacation to the Galapagos with her long time boyfriend, Finn who worked as a resident physician. Their world is turned upside down when Finn informs her that there is a virus which is highly contagious and the hospital needs “all hands on deck”. Although she is disappointed that their expense paid vacation had to canceled she understood how important it was for Finn to focus on work.
Diana feels comforted when Finn suggests she go alone so their money wouldn’t be a total loss and she would be somewhere safe from the virus. Conflicted, Diana goes on a journey that takes her to places she could never have imagined. She meets and befriends native occupants as the island is in the process of “shutting down” like the rest of the world. In attempts to contain and find a cure for this pandemic of Covid-19 coronavirus, countries were limiting travel and instructing people to remain where they are.
While away Diana makes desperate attempts to maintain contact with Finn who is describing the trauma of watching people die daily from this virus. She felt like she was living in a bubble where her real life seemed so far away with no plan for when it would normalize. Eventually, there does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel, it’s just not the light Diana had been expecting.
When Diana and Finn are reunited it seems that their time apart had altered their well planned future. The dreams of getting engaged and married and working her dream job all seemed less important. Surviving life amidst this pandemic was monumental for everyone, not just Diana and Finn. As such, many lives were changed forever, many dreams and expectations took unplanned turns so for the better and some not so fortunate.
At present, this is a “living” novel making it extremely difficult to review as I’m sure it was for the author to write. Many years from now people will read this book with same sense of bewilderment that we currently feel while reading about the Pandemic of 1918 or the 1883 epidemic of small pox. As unreal as it may seem while reading about it, living through it is an entirely different experience. Unfortunately, the political and social issues present all those years ago seem to provide a “plague” of its own that has yet to be “cured”.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it! (George Santayana-1905). In a 1948 speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill changed the quote slightly when he said (paraphrased), “those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”
My review of this ARC copy is voluntary and my unbiased opinion.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4050432026
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/3227850521
https://www.edelweiss.plus/?sku=1984818414&g=4400
https://www.instagram.com/p/CRj49h9rS0y/?utm_medium=copy_link
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