Linda Briscoe

I agree with all the reviews below- what a fantastic book! It did take me a while to engage with all the different elements and periods of time but once they began to develop and then meld, I found I couldn’t put the book down. Anthony Doerr does write so beautifully, with great empathy and care for his characters. Loved it.

I was looking forward to an historical and in-depth emotional tale of a family’s struggle and was really disappointed. I tried but felt no emotional attachment to any of the characters and the continual jump in timelines were irritating. As a read it was easy- but it felt like the author just had a family tree spreadsheet they needed to get through. Not one of the characters drew empathy or real emotion. I did, however, learn something about inter Korean/ Japanese culture and history. I’m puzzled as to why this book is ranked so high when there are so many wonderful writers out there.